Expedia group and Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) have released the findings from the fourth annual Air Travel Outlook Report, which uncovers air ticket pricing trends for economy (economy and premium economy class) and premium fare (first and business class) travellers.
Expedia said that the spectrum is widened in this year’s report to include premium fare insights with commentary from Egencia, its corporate travel brand.
The findings drew on ARC’s air travel data including average ticket prices, flight booking, departure and arrival trends between September 2016 and August this year to identify key patterns that travellers can use to achieve airfare savings in the new year.
Booking your trip at the right time could get you cheaper fares (Image credit: junce/iStock-GettyImages)
Here are the airfare saving tips from the report for 2018:
- For most economy air travel, booking more than 30 days ahead of your travel date often results in cheaper airfares.
- Booking your air travel on a Sunday for departure on a Thursday or Friday is the best recipe to finding good prices. Exceptions to this trend are for international flights departing from Australia, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Thailand.
- Historically the best months to get the lowest air ticket prices (ATPs) for international economy travel are January for travel from Japan; February from Indonesia; March from Hong Kong; Malaysia and Singapore, November from South Korea and Thailand; and December from China
- For most premium air travel (first and business class) booking more than 30 days ahead may yield cheaper airfares.
- The best days to book international premium air travel and to get the lowest ATPs are on Saturday or Sunday for travel on Friday or Sunday across all geographic regions.
- The difference in the premiums paid for purchasing airfares on the most expensive day versus the cheapest day of week can range from 15% to 120% for international flights. This is likely driven by corporate traveller buying behaviour, as they are less likely to book business travel on weekends when they are not at work.
- For premium travellers who can afford to be flexible with travel dates, avoiding travel during the months where the highest ATPs are historically may save you some money. Example, June sees the highest ATPs for Australian and New Zealand travellers, while for most parts of Asia it is between April and September.
The report also revealed Asia Pacific is poised to be the biggest driver of air travel demand in the next two decades. Based on the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s 20-Year Air Passenger Forecast, air travel routes to, from and within the region will see an extra 2.1 billion annual passengers by 2036, growing by an annual average rate of 4.6%.
China is also anticipated to displace the US as the world’s largest aviation market by 2022, while India will surpass UK to take fifth place in 2025, with Indonesia catching up by 2030. Thailand is expected to enter the world’s top 10 largest markets during the forecast period
• Read the full 2018 Outlook Travel Report here. Infographic below:
• Featured image credit: junce/iStock-Getty Images
