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