This is the best week to fly for a cheap holiday

Holiday search platform KAYAK analysed average prices for return flights for each week over the summer, looking at destinations both in Europe and beyond.

With schools breaking up towards the end of July, it's no surprise prices rocket around then.

For flights to Europe, they start to soar from July 15 with an average of £259 a ticket, before peaking in the week of July 22 at £278.

However, the cheapest time to fly this summer is the week of June 24 when prices drop to an average of £205.

If you need to travel in the summer holidays, waiting until later in the break could save you a few quid, with the cheapest school holiday prices coming in on August 26 at £216, followed by September 2 and 8 at £209. That's only £5 more expensive than the cheapest week of June 24.

For travel outside Europe, you will need to wait a little while for the deals, with September 9 working out the cheapest at £630. Alternatively June 10 has flights averaging just £5 more at £635.

The most expensive time to travel worldwide is again that first week of the summer holidays, with tickets averaging £908 from July 22.

Explaining the results, KAYAK said: "You’ll see similar price patterns for both [Europe and outside Europe], with airfare slowly rising from June, peaking in mid-July, and then tapering off at the start of autumn. This trend is even more pronounced for international flights."

Overall flight prices are decreasing for UK travellers according to KAYAK, with six of the nine regions it analysed showing a drop, one stable and two increasing – but both by just 3%.

It looked at prices for Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America and the South Pacific.

The Middle East has seen the biggest drop in prices in the last year, with an average airfare of £557, 9% lower than summer 2023.

Next was Asia (£854) and the Caribbean (£871) which have both seen a 7% drop in travel prices.

When it came to specific destinations, the biggest price drops were found in China, with Fozhou seeing a 45% decrease in flight costs compared to 2023, followed by Chinese cities Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. The destination seeing the fifth biggest drop in prices was Bodrum in Turkiye (16%).

Istanbul and Antalya also saw 14% reduction in airfare prices in the last year.

KAYAK said: "Travellers can find plenty of ticket-slashing deals to scoop up for European destinations outside of the UK. And most of them are already popular summer holiday destinations like Turkey, Croatia, and Greece.

"Bodrum enjoyed the biggest drop in price at -16%. Flights to tourist hotspots Dubrovnik and Pula in Croatia also saw hefty price cuts, as did the idyllic Greek island of Mykonos and Albania’s capital Tirana."

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