Leading price comparison site Skyscanner has found that travellers can save as much as 40% on flight prices by flying indirect routes to their destination. The site intelligently searches for the best prices on both direct and indirect flights allowing users to easily compare the options and decide which is most important to them, price or time. For the budget conscious, savings of up to 37% can be made by selecting the indirect route option. For example:

Save £139 on flights to India
Flying with Gulf Air from London Heathrow to Delhi via Bahrain in October costs from £377, rather than direct with British Airways from £516. The indirect flights take only five hours longer each way and passengers can save up to 37%.
 
Save almost £200 on flights to Hong Kong
Save up to 29% on October flights from London Heathrow to Hong Kong by flying via Mumbai with Jet Airways from £485, compared to direct with Qantas prices from £682. The cheaper indirect flights add just over five hours to the journey time.
 
Visitors to Moscow in October can save £56 by flying indirect, adding only two hours - by choosing Lufthansa flights via Germany from £157, rather than the direct Aeroflot service from £213.

A previous Skyscanner study which asked whether users would be willing to take an indirect flight to save money found that more than three quarters of users would consider the indirect option, with 20% of those polled believing a stopover to be a bonus if they got to see another city.

Barry Smith, Skyscanner’s Business Development Director said: “In tightened financial times, finding a significant saving on flights can mean the difference between taking a holiday or not.”

Smith continued: “We recognise priorities differ from person to person and whilst flying direct is undoubtedly more convenient, the savings offered by some indirect routes can be very attractive for some of our customers.”