Best time to book your flight for cheap travel, according to industry insiders

Travelling is one of life’s greatest joys, but it can make a rather large dent in your wallet. However, cheap travel is possible – if you know when to book.

With the start of the year being the busiest time for travel bookings as we dream of holidays in the sun, new research has found exactly when to book your trip to make the most savings, along with which day of the week you should travel on for the cheapest flights to certain countries.

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Booking a flight six months ahead will get you the best deals, the research from Skyscanner found, with Tuesday often being the best day to fly out of the UK, depending on your holiday destination.

To find these results, the flight booking platform looked at data from tens of thousands of flight bookings over the last year across its most popular destinations.

Check carefully which is the cheapest day to book, which will vary according to your chosen country. For example, the research found that the cheapest day to fly from London to Lisbon in June is a Monday, while it is cheaper to fly to Milan from London on a Tuesday during the same month.

A recent travel trends report from the platform found that Brits plan to travel as much, if not more, in 2023 but want to book the best value flights.

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It revealed that if you want to travel to Barcelona from London in July, you should book 20 weeks in advance. Those looking to travel to Berlin from Edinburgh in the same month should book 21 weeks in advance for the best prices, and those travelling from Manchester to Dubai in July should book 24 weeks in advance.

“Most travellers aren’t aware of some of the simple tips and travel hacks that could open up vast savings for them, which is now more important than ever,” Laura Lindsay, Skyscanner’s travel expert, says.

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“These insights don’t have to be driven by industry hearsay: we have access to thousands of data points powering our recommendations to unlock this intel for everyone. When searching for the right price, we know how powerful being informed is.”

To help out consumers, the site has developed a savings generator which can help you find the best prices for your holiday.

Simply pop in the destination you’re travelling from, the destination you’re hoping to travel to and the month you want to travel and the generator will tell you when to book, the average price and what day to fly.