The last decade has seen a dramatic change in the way that people travel around Europe, with the budget airlines opening flight routes to places that people never previously thought of visiting. The number of routes between the UK and France has increased dramatically during this period.

Even better, flights to many of these destinations remain available at low cost, and if you can be flexible on travel time (i.e. not flying on a Saturday in mid-summer!) there are often bargains to be had.

The trick to obtaining cheap flights is to plan ahead, and to monitor the flight prices very closely. First set yourself a target price – a price that you would be vey happy to pay. Let’s say you are happy to pay £30 return. Now, watch the prices every day, and if they approach or fall below the price you have set – book the tickets! Yes, the price might fall further…but it might not, and if you are happy with that price then it is better to pay it than take the risk.

It is sometimes suggested that airlines monitor who queries on prices for particular routes, and adjust the prices accordingly. So they know that if you check prices one day, then the next, it is likely that you are going to book the flight and they increase the price a bit.

Whether this is true or not I don’t know, although flights are often more expensive when you come to book them! If you believe this ‘conspiracy theory’ you might like to make your final check on the price from a different computer.

Some of the most interesting airports in France to have become popular in recent years are at Angouleme, Bergerac, Rodez, and Pau – all in the south or south-west of the country. (Angouleme airport only opened spring 2009). These and the others operated by the cheap airlines such as Ryanair or Flybe have completely transformed the amount of visitors in some regions.

This in part explains, incidentally, why flights are often so cheap. Towns like Bergerac, appreciating the value of the tourists brought into the town by the budget airlines, pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to the airlines as incentive for them to keep flying to the town!

So the town and local industry benefits from the tourists, the tourists benefit from cheap flights, employees beenefit from the jobs created at the new French airports, and everyone is happy.




By: Dick Tracy