The Average American Family Spends $240 on Airport Food & Drinks due to Flight Delays

Travel Snack Surtax: The average American family spends $240 on airport food & drinks due to flight delays, reveals data. This is equivalent to 26% of their flight ticket costs. Families flying out of Delaware airports spend the most on food & drinks.

Airport Armageddon: A surge in flight delays this summer has created chaos in airports around America, with the delay domino effect leaving travelers spending more time (and money) inside airports while they await their unpredictable departure. Airports are infamously renowned for their massively marked-up food and drink charges. In fact, an outrageously-priced $28 beer from a vendor at LaGuardia Airport recently made headlines due to its alarming cost. For passengers on standby (and who perhaps weren’t expecting to spend much money at the airport), flight delays can result in unforeseen, but unavoidably exorbitant, purchases of meals, snacks, and drinks. This can rack up significant costs – especially for traveling families – and particularly so if there are specific dietary requirements that are necessary.

FamilyDestinationsGuide.com analyzed flight data, including the average air ticket fare* per family**, in each state to determine how much more of families’ vacation budgets are being eaten into (literally) by flight delays. This found that overall, the average family flying out of airports across America spends the equivalent of 26% of their flight ticket costs on food & drink surcharges alone, while awaiting their departure – that’s $240.51! 

When analyzed by state, Delaware airports were found to have the highest figures for families in terms of additional food and drink costs: the average family spends 87% of their flight costs on these purchases. By comparison, those flying out of airports in Alaska spend 16% of their flight costs on travel snack surcharges. 

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