US flight searches ‘fall off a cliff’
Searches for flights to major US cities this summer are down by more than half compared to last year, according to fares comparison site Kayak.
Orlando and Tampa searches are down 58%, Fort Lauderdale has dropped 57% and Miami is down 52%, it said.
Searched for San Diego are down 43%, Las Vegas has dropped 36% and Los Angeles has fallen 32%.
However, Kayak said airfares were holding firm, although hotel prices for stays in June to August in Vegas are down by an average of 39%. In San Francisco they have dropped 34% and in New York rates are down 32%.
Price of flights to many popular European destinations have also dropped for summer 2017, according to Kayak. It said fares to Ibiza have fallen by 32%, despite it being the fifth most searched-for world-wide destination by Brits.
Fares to Faro in Portugal have fallen by a fifth, but the biggest flight price drops in Europe are to Pula in Croatia, which have fallen 43% due to the launch of a new flight from Heathrow by British Airways.
Many perennially popular resorts have also seen their prices slashed. Fares to Alicante and Mallorca are both down 19%, whilst Malaga has seen average prices for flights fall by 17%, it said.
However, Kayak said flights to Mexico City were ‘the bargain of the summer’, down by 39% on average. Fares to Rio de Janeiro are also down, by 23%, but this is largely because they were inflated last summer when it hosted the Olympics.
An increase in flights to Singapore has led to a 20% drop in air fares, said Kayak, while prices to New Zealand are down 22%.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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