Holidaymakers in the south west of England are paying £200 more for their flights than those in the south east, an aviation survey has found. Global flight search Cheapflights.co.uk revealed what it has dubbed a “postcode pinch” among travellers’ flight costs across the country. The south east, on average, is the cheapest place to fly … Continue reading ‘Postcode pinch’ as flight costs vary across UK finds Cheapflights
‘Postcode pinch’ as flight costs vary across UK finds Cheapflights
Holidaymakers in the south west of England are paying £200 more for their flights than those in the south east, an aviation survey has found.
Global flight search Cheapflights.co.uk revealed what it has dubbed a “postcode pinch” among travellers’ flight costs across the country.
The south east, on average, is the cheapest place to fly from, followed by the north, Scotland, the Midlands and the south west.
Passengers in London can, for example, get to Amsterdam for £72 while it costs £231 to jet to the Dutch capital from Newquay.
Cheapflights’ annual compass report is based on billions of lines of data from 2.1 million hours’ worth of searches between August 2015 and July 2016 – the equivalent of 247 years.
It also found that it is more expensive, on average, to fly within the UK than parts of Europe.
The report also found a trend that Brits are looking to fly further afield, with eight long-haul destinations included in the top 20 searched.
The USA, India and Thailand were all included in the top ten destinations.
Spain topped the charts, followed by the US, UK, Italy and France.
“The Cheapflights Compass is the result of the biggest crunch of data from UK users of our website and app in our 20-year history,” said managing director Andrew Shelton.
“People come to Cheapflights for timely, useful information to help them make the right travel decision. As the memories of the summer holidays fade and their thoughts turn to where they could go next year.”
Calculating the cost-per-mile of flights, Cheapflights found that Australia offers the “best value for money for a winter-sun escape” at 4p per mile for a return trip.
Innsbruck, 763 miles away and a popular choice for winter sports enthusiasts cost 13p per mile while it was 7p a mile for Whistler, in Canada, which is 4,723 miles away.
A city break 230 miles away in Brussels cost 30p per mile while Istanbul and Athens both equate to just 6p per mile for an average return flight but are 1,888 and 1,982 miles away from London respectively.
Cheapflights believes the data can help them predict holiday destinations for 2017, and predicts top-choice Spain could see a lull as it’s only the 16th most “affordable” journey while Canada – which celebrates its 150th anniversary next year – is 10% cheaper to get to than popular neighbour the USA.
