Schools urged to stagger summer and half-term holidays to cut soaring flight prices for parents

Exclusive: ‘Most airlines make profits during the summer and lose money in the winter – if they cannot make a profit in summer, they will go out of business’

Mediterranean bliss: A beach near Marseille, in the south of France (Simon Calder)

How to reduce soaring flight and package prices during school holidays: spread the hols and change the rules on flight slots, says aviation expert.

The 8.10am easyJet flight from London Gatwick to Geneva on 8 February 2025, coming back a week later at 11.10am, is selling for £85 return. But a week later the fare for identical flights on Britain’s biggest budget airline leaps to £928 – 11 times higher – as families desperate for skiing holidays in the Alps drive up prices.

Parents of school-age children are painfully aware of the high cost of travel outside term time. Research shows more parents are prepared to accept the £80 fine for unauthorised absences in return for saving many hundreds or thousands of pounds.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, has called “for government intervention to introduce some restraint on the extent to which travel firms are able to put up their prices”.

Writing in TES (formerly the Times Educational Supplement), he said: “It does feel as though the market has been allowed to run riot and now effectively exploits the situation to maximum advantage.

“It is difficult to believe that the astonishing mark-ups on travel during school holiday periods could not be controlled to some extent.”

But a leading aviation expert has warned that price regulation would traumatise the travel industry. Jonathan Hinkles, former chief executive of Loganair, said: “Most airlines make profits during the summer and lose money in the winter – if they cannot make a profit in summer, they will go out of business.”

He warned: “Any conceivable model to regulate airline and/or holiday pricing in peak season will cause market failures if airlines are no longer able to make summer profits to sustain themselves through winter.”

In addition, accommodation providers overseas who were asked to cut their rates because of a ‘cap’ on UK package holiday prices would simply sell the rooms to families from other countries.

Instead, Mr Hinkles has called for school holidays dates to be spread across a wider range of weeks, and for airline slot allocations to be more flexible in late March and late October – usually coinciding with the Easter and autumn half-term holidays.

Speaking to The Independent’s travel podcast, he said holiday firms currently have “just 13 weeks of peak demand during the school holidays”.

The aviation expert said: “School terms in England and Wales follow a near-identical pattern with 13 weeks of holiday per year – confining peak travel demand into 25 per cent of the year.

“Although the structure of holiday dates in England and Wales means that Christmas and Easter breaks cannot readily be staggered, there is scope to fully offset February and October half-terms and partly offset the main summer break without affecting other dependencies including national exam dates and higher education admissions.” Mr Hinkles suggests the October half term, February half term and main summer holiday are offset by one week each for some parts of England and Wales.

“This would take holidays from 13 to 16 weeks of the year – a 23 per cent increase.

“There are a handful of examples where this is already achieved in the UK – for example, Waltham Forest takes its October half-term one week earlier than other London boroughs.”

“Demand for flights and holidays would be diffused, aligning supply with demand and avoiding ultra-peak prices.”

In addition, he said, the UK domestic tourism industry – accommodation and attractions – would see a substantial boost from being able to service a longer period of demand instead of a short peak period in which it operates at full capacity. Mr Hinkles has also called for greater flexibility on take-off and landing slots at major UK airports.

At present airlines change their schedules at the end of March, when the summer season is deemed to begin, and at the end of October when winter commences.

He said: “A sizeable proportion of airline capacity – between 5 and 10 per cent – is lost to consumers at these times during the season changeovers.

“This artificial supply-side constraint drives up the selling prices of remaining air seats and holidays for the October half-term and Easter holidays.”

Summarising his recommendations, Mr Hinkles said: “No new legislation would be required, and the initiative would be achieved through liaison by the Department for Transport with the aviation industry and by the Department for Education with local education authorities.”

Large holiday companies are represented by Abta. A spokesperson for the travel association said: “Prices in the travel industry, like any other sector, are governed by supply and demand. School holidays are at already busy times of the year when demand is high, such as Christmas, Easter and the summer months, it should also be remembered that most of Europe takes a break in the summer especially August which puts further pressure on prices.

“British travel companies are also in competition with travel companies around the world and if they reduced the amount they were prepared to pay to overseas hotels and other suppliers at peak periods, they would lose out to those other companies, and it wouldn’t bring any benefit to the UK consumer.

“We would encourage families to book early to get the best deals and consider a package holiday, as tour operators will often offer discounted child fares and free child places.”