Flights so expensive for May!

[Bellini12]

We were thinking about going away for a week in May at half term (went to Algarve last year, weather was amazing and had a fab time). But is it me or are flights just ridiculously expensive - more so than normal? About £400pp to fly from Gatwick to Faro. £300+ for most other European countries. We looked the week before and it was £75pp!
Is it the collapse of Monarch that has driven up prices? Or sterling?
At this rate we won’t be able to go abroad. Or is it likely that flights will go down between now and then so to keep an eye on them?

Yep, same here. I put it down to it being half term. I paid about £300 each Birmingham to Faro May half term last year.

I think it is just the effect of half term.

We looked up what we paid last year and they are definitely more.
Flights to Faro (at not stupid flying times) were 5 times more expensive than the week before! It takes the biscuit!

But they are more than half term last year.

I think it's because there's a reduced number of countries people are willing to travel to - so cut out Turkey and Egypt, driving up prices for "safe" destinations, particularly for shoulder periods such as May and October half terms.

We're unlikely to go away this October - prices, even to non sun destinations are really high.

I wouldn't count on them going down.

Try going via dublin will reduce the cost but yes in general flight prices seem very high this year.

Half term
Airline collapses
Bad pound dollar exchange rate
limited availability due to dangerous destinations (Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco)

All will push down supply and push up demand.

lots of bank holidays in May. Not just in the UK

We just can’t justify spending those prices.
So much for a quick get-away - we always love that time of year as weather isn’t too hot and it’s not crowded like August. But that is crazy-money for a family to spend.

The Monarch collapse is probably a factor, along with exchange rate, people not going to Turkey and half term, all compounding to make flights more expensive.

There were a lot of Monarch flights from Gatwick weren't they? And a lot of people will have booked with Monarch for May half term by early October when they went bust wouldn't they?

So that's lots of people who needed to find new flights to avoid losing money on the accomodation, hire car etc that they'd probably also booked, which would make flights more expensive.

We won’t be going abroad this year, and we usually go in the May half term. But most of our friends don’t have a holiday abroad ever so I’ve always felt lucky that we did and this year I’m looking forward to our UK break. We’re also going to have a night in a hotel for each of our birthdays and for mine & DH anniversary and we’ve never done any of those before so that feels exciting to us all as it’s lots to look forward to. And will cost much less than a week abroad.

When we have been booking our hols in the past though, for about the last 5 years I’ve noticed it’s much cheapest to book as soon as the flights are released I.e literally 11-12 months in advance. They always go up and up after that as demand increases. The days of getting a bargain nearer the time seem to be long gone, unless you literally an leave it to the week before you want to go.

Have you looked at the budget airlines? There are still cheap flights about.

Often cheaper to book a package of flight + accom in school hols.

BA bought monarchs slots at LGW.

Have you tried from a different airport, Stansted or Luton might be a bit of a trek of Gatwick is your closest, but it could offer a saving as there are much more budget flights.

I’ve just paid £620 for two flights to Lisbon in May half term. Wanted Faro but that was too expensive so we’ll drive down. Having said that I agree with a previous poster that I am late booking and would have got a better price a few months ago.

Ive just paid £460 for a return flight to St Lucia 23rd May. Looking at prices for European flights I thought may as well do that.

We were booked on Monarch and due to fly 2 days after they collapsed and I was very fortunate to rebook early that morning before flight prices went crazy and sold out anyway.

I looked later in the day and flights to Europe in the coming few weeks were over £1k per person return .

OP have you looked at BA if they now have the Monarch slots? Or otherwise look on skyscanner UK to Portugal with your dates and see if anything comes up. It can also be worth going indirect - could be cheaper for only a slightly longer flight if you get a short connection in Paris or Madrid etc.

Yes I wish I had started looking much earlier (I’m not so good at the pre-planning though).
I did go on skyscanner and put in major European airports - Faro, Nice, Alicante, Valencia, Parma, Lanzarote etc. ALL of them are coming up in the high £300’s/£400 mark. That’s not much off a flight to New York!
I’m not too keen on changing airports for such a short flight (not a great flyer anyway!).
We don’t normally do a package but these were coming out a little cheaper, but still working out as £400pp for the flight.
I think the collapse of Monarch has had a huge impact (that’s who we flew with last May).

Just put the flying out on the 26th and returning on the 30th, Gatwick to Faro into Skyscanner and there are return flights for £335pp from Gatwick (EJ on way out, Norwegian on way back). Could you look at other destinations? We (3 of us) are going to Verona May half term and the total flight cost for us all was £242. Having said that, we're going mid week and have 3 inset days the following week.

Wow that's a good price, SJane! We are flying to Verona in May half term and I thought we had got a bargain paying £477 for 3 of us to fly out Monday to Friday.

To be fair pinkchampagne, we are flying out on the 3rd and returning on the 6th as the school has put some inset days together so you probably do have a great price! Have a great time!