Airline prices are soaring nationwide, but you wouldn’t know it from Angelito Reyes’ frequent jaunts to San Diego.

The 29-year-old Mission district resident books a quick flight on Southwest Airlines whenever he needs a change of pace.

“It’s always cheap,” he says. “It costs the same or less than driving.”

While domestic airfares rose 4.4 percent nationwide over the past year, passengers flying out of San Francisco International Airport actually saved money, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Transportation this week.

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Fares out of SFO dropped 6.2 percent from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of this year, bringing the average domestic airfare ticket from $422 to $396. The numbers are based on a combination of round-trip and one-way tickets. Unusually high fees and trips taken with frequent flyer miles were excluded.

Airlines have been raising fares, adding new fees, cutting domestic capacity and shedding jobs to try to offset the steep rise in fuel prices. Several major carriers still reported large losses for the quarter ended June 30.

Rick Seaney, of airfare research Web site FareCompare.com, said recently that airfares across the country had risen 20 percent since the beginning of the year.

At SFO, the number of passengers and the revenue they bring to the airport has increased dramatically since low-cost airlines such as Virgin America, JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines began service out of SFO about a year ago.

In a recent report from the airport, SFO’s passenger base of 33.5 million grew by 6.5 percent from June to November, a big increase from the usual 2 percent annual growth.

The influx of discount airlines serving travelers like Reyes is one reason why ticket prices out of SFO dropped, said analyst Henry Harteveldt with San Francisco-based Forrester Research.

“We have Virgin America flying now, and they weren’t flying a year ago,” he said. “They’ve been very aggressive in fare sales and are based in San Francisco. Southwest is also at SFO and has expanded its presence, adding more flights to existing cities in the past year. Jet Blue has also added some flights.”

As cheaper carriers flood the San Francisco travel market, other airlines are left with no choice but to become more competitive, Harteveldt said.

Despite the decrease, flights out of SFO still remain pricier than the national average of $332. Some of the reason for the price drop may have more to do with the nation’s soft economy than with the airline industry itself, Harteveldt said.

Other reasons cited by airline analysts for the drop in price are that Bay Area business travelers are ditching cushy premium-class flights for economy seats and vacationers aren’t going as far away because their budgets won’t allow it.

While airlines have been adding new fees, cutting capacity and laying off employees to offset the rising cost of jet fuel, Harteveldt said the DOT numbers represented a ray of hope for San Francisco travelers.

“What it shows is that consumers can get good fares when flying out of San Francisco International,” he said.

tbarak@sfexaminer.com

The Associated Press contributed to this story.