BRITS heading abroad have faced eye-watering price increasesfor holiday packages in six of the favourite hostpots in Europe.
The Office for National Statistics data revealed price of flights rose by 44 per cent in the past year, with holiday deals also on the up.
The UK statistics giant said airlines capitalised on pent-up demand for holidays.
The heightened prices were also caused by a reduction in the number of flights operating and the rising cost of jet fuel.
However, those claims were followed by the consumer watchdog, Which?, who found the price of holiday packages jumped by 19 per cent year on year as operators faced growing costs.
The consumer group compared prices in the six most popular holiday destinations – Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Turkey and Cyprus.
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According to Which?, Greece had the steepest price rises with a week’s holiday costing on average 30 per cent more than last year.
For one person, the average price was £867 per person this summer.
Prices have also risen by a fifth in Italy, Spain and Turkey.
Portugal holiday fares were less affected with the cost of a week’s holiday rising by seven per cent to an average of £705 per person.
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But it was Spain that had the cheapest getaways, with a week’s package costing £693 per person.
Which? used data from Travelsupermarket.com and monitored summer 2023 holiday prices between November 1 and January 3, before comparing them to 2022 prices in the same destinations.
Industry heavyweights have also weighed in and predicted price rises for the future.
Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, said the era of £9.99 seats would not return "for the next year or two" because of high oil prices.
He said: "There’s lots of spending going on out there.
"We’ve gone through two weeks of record bookings after Christmas.
"People are worried prices might rise in summer, which I think they will, and want to get in there early."
Skyscanner, the world’s biggest flight comparison platform, said bookings for UK departures were up 50 per cent this year compared with the same period in 2019.
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Laura Lindsay, Skyscanner’s trends expert told The Times: "We’re seeing demand for holidays is extremely high going into 2023, and bookings in the first and second week in January exceeded the volume during the corresponding week in 2019.
"This large wave of interest shows that travellers are eager to make plans, as well as continuing to make up for lost time."
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