Cheap Flights

These days there are a mind-troubling number of possibilities on how to book cheap flights and how to find the cheapest plane ticket. Most people who are not an expert in finding and booking the best flight deal are starting to get rather confused by the overwhelming choice of websites that claim to have the most current and cheapest flight deals. The selection of websites that deal with flights ranges from flight consolidators, tour operators and online travel agents over price comparison sites to budget airlines and all major traditional airlines.

Ticket prices are the cheapest off season when airlines feel the need to fill up seats. Even the biggest airlines turn into cheap airlines when airfares drop tremendously in the months either side of the peak season. Peak season for most destinations in Europe and North America such as the USA and Canada are June to September when most people take their summer holidays. Although the summer holiday period is the main peak season for flights there are certainly several short term exceptions such as Christmas, New Years, Easter Holidays or when major business and cultural events are taking place such as big trade fares and concerts. Lets say you are planning to fly to Milan or Paris for a major fashion trade fare or you feel like flying from New York City to London Heathrow nonstop for a big concert over the weekend you should consider to book your plane ticket as early as possible. Airlines catch on these kinds of events instantly and adjust their airfare ticket prices immediately to demand. You can easily end up paying twice as much for the flight just for that specific day during a low season period of the year.

The idea to fly to small airports with low landing charges, using ticketless online booking mechanisms plus a cost cutting strategy stripping out all the extras such as free drinks, food, newspapers etc. really worked well for those budget airlines so many of us take for granted by now. Back in 1985, flying from London to Paris for £60 or from New York City to London for $400 would have been impossible. In deed the rise of budget airlines in Europe and North America has created a new kind of traveler. Any person who earns a normal salary can log on to the internet have a search for the cheapest flight to some place he has never heard about before, check it out for a long weekend and be back for work on Tuesday morning with one travel experience richer. The original idea of budget airlines is an American one but examples like Ryanair and Easyjet in Europe show how successful this idea can be applied to not only one country but across the whole continent. And the demand on cheap flights keeps growing and growing such that Ryanair with over a million passengers a month has become a serious competition for some of the larger airlines and tour operators such as British Airways, Air Canada, United Airlines and British Midland. Air India for example offers flights London and New York City to a number of destination in India and Asia for really a low cost.