Friday The 13th, The Cheapest Day To Fly

Today is Friday the 13th is the most economic day to get on a plane, an airline booking site has said, suggesting that superstition keeps some of the general public from taking to the skies.

The average price of a domestic return flight during June was £233, according to the well known flight booking website but, for those brave enough to travel today, this fell by £52, with tickets on June 13th costing just £181 on average. The website claims it is the cheapest day to fly this month.

The search engine processes more than one billion queries annually and has concluded that prices have been driven back by superstition based on search trends from around the world.

Today is the only Friday 13th in 2014.

The day apparently worries fliers in other European countries too, with prices on Friday 13th being the cheapest over the whole month in France, Austria and Sweden also.

The average price of domestic return flights in France dropped by £53 on Friday 13th and in Austria by £24. Swedes seem to be the most nervous fliers, with the average price of a domestic flight on that day there falling by £89.

For domestic return flights in the UK, the average prices either side of this Friday were £258 on Wednesday 11th , £239 on the 12th, £203 on Saturday 14th and £223 on Sunday 15th.

Fear of Friday 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia as we have discussed on our blog before.

Some hotels don’t number their 13th floor but give it a name instead, such as the “pool floor” at the Radisson Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Just how superstitious are travellers? Not enough to convince airlines to do away with row 13 in their cabins.

“A lot of the rumours are simply urban myths in the aviation industry,” a British Airways spokesman said. “All our aircraft have a row 13.”

He went on to suggest that British Airways flights do not follow the booking pattern that the flight booking website discovered either.

“Prices are not cheaper on Friday 13th,” he added, “if anything they usually go up slightly at the end of the week due to demand.”

What do you think? Would you be worried to travel on Friday the 13th or would you be happy to save a few pounds and have the plane to yourself?

Having worked in the car rental industry for over 15 years, he really knows his stuff. Rob heads up our marketing department and as a keen traveller, always has a new location to talk about. Particularly if there is a golf course nearby.