Filenews 20 January 2023
The price of plane tickets from Britain for holidays abroad this summer has risen by 44% in the last year.
The data comes from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which attributed this jump in prices to the rush of airlines to make the most of the strong rise in demand after the years of the pandemic.
The ONS added, however, that prices also increased due to the reduced number of flights, as well as the higher cost of fuel for aircraft.
At the same time, research by the consumer protection organization Which? finds that the cost of travel packages from Britain has increased by an average of 19% compared to last year.
Of the six countries popular with the British that Which?" studied, the steepest increases in the cost of package holidays were found in Greece.
A one-week holiday package in the country will cost a Briton 30% more than last summer. The average cost of air tickets and accommodation for one person in Greece for one week in the summer is estimated at 867 pounds (up from 667 pounds in the summer of 2022).
About 20% is the corresponding increase in the cost of holidays in Italy, Spain and Turkey and 15% for Cyprus.
The average cost of a seven-day holiday package for this summer in Cyprus is estimated at £809 (compared to £705 last year).
The lowest increase is recorded for holidays in Portugal, namely 7% with the average price of a seven-day package at £705 per person.
Despite a significant year-on-year increase, the cheapest destination is Spain, with £693 per person respectively.
As far as the price of airline tickets is concerned, which? puts the average increase at 51% compared to the summer of 2022. For Greece and Italy the corresponding increase reaches 71%.
The investigations come after the chief executive of low-cost airline Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, warned that the era of £9.99 airline seats would not return "for another year or two" due to high fuel prices.
Despite the higher cost, however, popular airline ticket search and comparison platform Skyscanner has confirmed estimates of increased demand for tickets from Britain this year. Specifically, so far bookings for this year are 31% more than in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
