Simon Calder shares how to beat half-term holiday price wars as flights soar to 9 times the normal price

Simon Calder issues half-term holiday price warning as flights soar to 9 times the normal priceThe Independent

Transcript

00:00Families are used to the idea that travel is more expensive outside school terms

00:06and the February half-term is particularly painful

00:10partly, I think, because people have been enduring a long, cold, dark winter

00:16and they want to get out to the mountains, do some skiing perhaps

00:19or maybe head off for some winter sun in the Canary Islands.

00:23This year, well, the prices are through the roof.

00:28Let's take the benchmark flight from London Gatwick to Geneva on EasyJet.

00:35Travelling out on Saturday 15th February for a week,

00:38some flights are selling at £1,223 return

00:45and no, that does not include baggage.

00:49That sort of figure would get you in normal times to Australia and back.

00:54If you want to go on a package holiday,

00:57well, you could head for the Canaries from Manchester.

01:00TUI has one option to the beautiful island of Lanzarote.

01:05That's going to cost a family of four nearly £10,000.

01:12People say this is terrible profiteering but really it's not.

01:17The fact that you can travel out a week later on those very same flights on EasyJet

01:23for one-ninth of what it's going to cost over half term

01:27really just reflects how the market is.

01:31Travel companies for a lot of the year will actually lose money.

01:35They make it back big time during the school holidays.

01:41But there's one more thing before you get too annoyed about this.

01:45You don't have to go on those flights.

01:48If you really want to get out to the Alps, there's other ways of doing it.

01:52I would, for instance, suggest that you fly out to Basel in Switzerland,

01:57much more of a business centre, and then get trains to the Alps that you need to be at.

02:04Or you can hop in the car and drive down there.

02:07It's going to be long, it's going to be arduous, but it's going to save you a fortune.

02:11Nobody is forcing anybody to pay these prices.

02:14People are choosing to do so.

02:17That's how the market works.

02:20Actually, we are pretty well served in the UK by the travel market.

02:25Have a lovely half term, wherever you end up.