Travel search site finds travelers can save up to 50% by booking two months ahead. Trend shows travellers need not book further in advance for the best airfares.
Travel search site momondo.co.uk’s new Flight Insight tool analyses millions of prices on flight routes departing from the UK, to determine when it’s cheapest to fly.
Testing flight searches made so far in 2013, on the site’s 13 most popular flight routes out of London, this week momondo uncovered a new flight trend, finding that on average, the cheapest flight prices can be found when booking on average 59 days in advance of departure.
Routes from London tested were to Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, Lisbon, Dublin, New York, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, Istanbul, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Los Angeles.
Statistically, for these popular routes, momondo found travellers can save anywhere between 18–51% on airline fares, or on average 38%. This percentage saving is compared to the most expensive day to book, which, 85% of the time, unsurprisingly, is on the actual day of departure.
Finding the cheapest price around two months in advance, was a uniform trend, despite the individuality of each route, distance and flight time, including both domestic and international routes. All of the cheapest flight prices for these routes could be found, by booking between 54 and 66 days in advance of the date of departure.
momondo found the greatest saving to be made was on flights to Dublin from London. On average, these are 51% cheaper, when booking 58 days in advance of departure – when the average price is £167, compared to booking on the day of departure, when the average cost is £340.
Julie Pedersen, Spokesperson at momondo states: “We are pleased to uncover some new trends around booking flights, proving it is always cheapest to book on average two months ahead of travel. The surprising fact for us also, was that at this point, flights are usually at their cheapest. So travellers need not book 6 or 12 months in advance, to find the best airfares.”
Along with date of booking, the cost of an airfare is strongly influenced by factors including the actual date of departure, time of day, season, airlines serving the route, and airports of departure and arrival. These factors are highly individual for each route, and should be taken into consideration by travellers wishing to save money on their flight.
The new tool “Flight Insight”, was introduced by momondo to provide users with a greater insight into how airlines set their prices, showing which factors to watch out for, when searching for the cheapest fares. The tool appears at the top of the search results on momondo, after a user specifies a set flight search. It is currently available on over 1,800 routes world-wide, and being added to further routes daily.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
