Travelers often have a lot of questions. When is the best time to go to a certain place? What’s the difference between multi trip travel insurance and annual trip travel insurance? When travelers are making bookings for air tickets, they also wonder if there are certain days in the week where air travel is cheaper. This may be a simple question, but the answer is not that straight forward. Yet, it will be interesting to find out if there are days where it’s cheaper to travel by air.
To facilitate the investigation, let’s look at some air fares for all the days of the week for a one-way trip from New York, NY (LGA) to Los Angeles, CA (LAX). Covering the period from Sunday January 10, 2010 to Saturday January 16, 2010, and Sunday February 21, 2010 to Saturday February 27, 2010, let’s compare the prices of these air tickets from Midwest Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
If you make your bookings on October 30, 2009, tickets start from $182 from Midwest and $134 from Southwest for Sunday January 10, 2010. From Monday January 11 to Thursday January 14, Midwest tickets start at $100. Then, prices start at $124 for Friday January 15, going down to starting point of $100 for Saturday January 16. On the Southwest side, air tickets from Monday to Saturday start at $100.
On October 30, 2009, Midwest tickets start at $124 for the entire week from Sunday February 21 to Saturday February 27, 2010. On the Southwest side, tickets start at $159 on Sunday February 21. From Monday February 22 to Thursday February 25, the prices of tickets begin at $104. Then, it goes up to a beginning rate of $124 on Friday February 26 before it returns to the starting rate of $104 for Saturday February 27.
Looking at these figures, it can be seen that air tickets are generally higher on Sundays and it’s quite the same for the rest of the days, except for two occasions on Fridays. While the results of these sets of data are not entirely conclusive as they represent a small sample size, the general idea is that air tickets are somewhat higher on Sundays and Fridays. To avoid the inflated cost of air travel during peak seasons, the two periods have been specifically selected so that it’s possible to reach a meaningful answer.
The prices of all things, including air tickets, are governed by demand and supply. Since the majority of people who can afford to purchase air tickets have to work during the weekdays, it makes sense that air tickets are most expensive on Sundays. Traveling is also more popular on Friday because it’s the end of the week and people who want to go for a short vacation can then return on Sunday. Another thing that air travelers would be keen to know if that fact that morning flights are generally cheaper than the later flights. To enjoy some savings on air tickets, it’s best to avoid the peak seasons, Sundays, Fridays, and get on the plane as early as you can!
