Summer flight prices are already a moving target, and a war in Iran just put them in motion again. You found the fare. You know how this goes. By the time you add the carry-on, buy your way out of the middle seat, and pick a departure time that doesn’t require a 4am alarm, the number on your screen has nothing to do with the number you started with.

Here is the part that does not add up: airlines do not show up at the fuel pump with a credit card. They hedge. They pre-buy. The fuel cost was locked in months ago. And yet the surcharges are already moving, and the summer travel window is exactly when you are going to feel it. Twenty years ago, legislation forced all-in pricing because base-fare advertising was making the government look bad. The fees survived. They just moved one tab deeper.

The waiting is familiar too. Your bags at Pearson sometimes take longer to arrive than the flight itself did. The improvement fees have been collecting for decades. Robert Kokonis has spent a career watching aviation from the inside, and even he cannot give you a clean answer on what your summer trip is going to cost.

Topics: summer flight prices Canada, aviation fuel costs, airline surcharges, Iran oil prices travel, drip pricing airlines

GUEST: Robert Kokonis | Air Trav Inc.

Originally aired on2026-03-11