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You should book your airline tickets now, if you plan to fly home or away before Christmas Eve.

With Christmas fast approaching, the battle for the cheapest airline tickets has already begun. When planning to fly home or away for Christmas, there is one question that always comes up:

How far in advance should I book the airline ticket to get it as cheaply as possible?

It has proven difficult to find the answer to the question. And the answer may vary depending on which airport you are traveling from and which destination you are traveling to. Airlines want to sell their airline tickets at the highest possible price, while customers prefer the cheapest possible travel.

But if you book your tickets at the wrong time, you can end up paying up to three times more than if you plan well in advance.

Busiest day of Christmas

As Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year, the big travel days will be Friday 22 and Saturday 23 December. Travel activity is always high on these days and the day before New Year’s Eve.

And busy days also mean more expensive airline tickets. Are there many flights between the selected airports or is the service particularly limited?

If it’s the latter, it’s harder to find a cheap airline ticket. If the route is more competitive, this will of course also affect the price of the airline tickets.

Many airlines, including SAS and Norwegian, increase departures on several of their routes in the latter half of December, but this does not necessarily mean a cheaper ticket price.

Average airfares tend to be at their lowest approximately 70 days before departure. This means that in order to get the cheapest airline ticket price, you should already have booked this year’s tickets for the Christmas holidays at the beginning of October. If you haven’t, you should do it now, as it only gets more expensive to fly the closer we get to Christmas.

It is a good idea to compare prices – and especially days – as this way you can get your trip significantly cheaper. If you travel on Monday 18 December, you can most likely save money.

The ticket price is also often lower the earlier you travel in the morning.

And it’s a good idea to leave early for several reasons. Flights departing early in the day are less delayed than flights departing later in the day. Delays during the day can be extensive, particularly during peak periods such as the Christmas holidays, increasing the risk of disruption at the airport in the evening.

Is the airport busy on the 24th of December?

Despite the fact that you might think that Christmas Eve is a busy travel day, the opposite is actually the case. According to experts, Christmas Eve is the least busy travel day of the year. However, you cannot be sure of achieving the big savings on your airline tickets by traveling on 24 December. But you avoid a hectic travel experience.