Flights availability update
Over the last couple of years there has been good reason for people to gamble on the flights lates market, due to over supply of capacity in Summer 2008 and Summer 2009, if you booked early you may be sitting next to someone on the plane who paid £50 less. Will Summer 2010 be different?? In our opinion the answer is yes. There are massively fewer flights in the market than in previous years, with Scotland being worst affected with the collapse of FlyGlobespan. Many of the smaller tour operators have reduced their capacity and the big two Thomsons and Thomas Cook have likewise reduced the number of flights they have available - the simple reason why is that they weren't making any money selling these flights!!
The ethos for all Tour Operators for the 2010 season seems to be low risk, we have not spoken to one who is expecting a massive rush this year, their strategy for the most part seems to be, that they will only offer the flights they know they can fill. What does this mean for the customer? First they will be paying, possible for the first time in three years what the flight costs and second that if they don't book in advance they will either pay a high premium or not be going at all. This is especially the case for peak school holiday dates where prices on popular routes have increased by more than 30-40% since the beginning of January.
The cavaets to this is that all operators operate a fluid pricing strategy - this basically means that if a flight is selling they put the price up and if it isn't they put the price down. When we are asked by a client will the price go up or down, we liken this question to how long is a piece of string? - nobody really knows all we can do is listen to what we are being told look at the trends and advise. Our advice for this Summer expecially if you want to go when the kids are away book early. Also be aware that if you live in the North of Engalnd, lots of people from Scotland will have to travel to airports such as Manchester and Newcastle will be forced to travel from these airports due to lack of supply from Scotland.
So would we hold out for a cheaper price, the answer is probably not, especially if I was looking to go to Turkey, Greece, Canaries or Cyprus. Only time will tell if we are right.
Give us your opinion, are you waiting or are you booking early to make sure you get your flights.
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I have been watching flights to Turkey since last october, and they were very reasonable then after xmas they shot up, they have levelled out over the past couple of weeks and I managed to book one today at reasonable price £266 all in which is good. they really would sell better if they were priced reasonable all year and not fluctuating it isnt fair.
ReplyDeleteDue to the high demand for Dalaman flights this summer, operators had increased the price slightly as their flights filled up. Several operators including Avro have been quick to add more flights as recently announced.
ReplyDeleteThe flight prices to Dalaman do fluctuate and this is usually down to how well or not the flight is selling.