Large crowds and long lines at TSA checkpoints may have you rethinking any travel plans that involve flying. You may think that flying out of a smaller regional airport could be the best way to go. But new data from the U.S. Department of Transportation shows that airfares at several smaller South Texas airports are on the rise. And in the case of one Rio Grande Valley airport, in particular, airfare costs have risen faster than anywhere else in the country.
While Brownsville isn’t one of the most expensive regional airports in the country — or even the most expensive airport to fly out of in South Texas — it has seen the highest jump in the cost of airfares of other regional airport in the United States, despite only seeing about one-fourth as many passengers as the Valley’s two other airports, McAllen International Airport and Valley International Airport. Laredo was also among the top 10 for steepest airfare price hikes.
“Average airfare at Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport (BRO) was $66.59 more expensive in 2025 than it was the year prior, the biggest increase of any airport,” Only In Your State reporter Josh Koebert wrote.
In 2024, the average cost of a ticket for a flight from Brownsville was $376.72. In 2025, the cost of Brownsville airfares rose nearly 17.68% to $443.31, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Airfare also rose at Laredo International Airport, which ranked as the airport with the ninth-highest airfare increase in the country. In 2024, the average ticket for a flight from Laredo cost $409.98. In 2025, that ticket went up by 8.3% to $444.04.
The price hikes at the two airports helped make them the 54th and 55th most expensive regional airports in the country, out of the 125 that Only In Your State analyzed. Only one other airport in South Texas was more expensive — Corpus Christi International Airport, where the average cost of airfare in 2025 was $492.62, a less than 1% increase over the previous year.
Meanwhile, Harlingen’s Valley International Airport (VIA) came in as one of the most affordable in the country. Between 2024 and 2025, airfares at the Harlingen airport actually went down by about 4%, from $338.59 to $324.55, making VIA the 20th most-affordable regional airport in the U.S. One county over, the busiest airport in the Valley also saw slight price drops. In 2024, airfare at McAllen International went for about $397.41. In 2025, that price dropped 1.3% to $392.21.