Thursdays are the Cheapest Day of the Week to Fly Out of KSA, according to Skyscanner
With January now in full swing after those long, lazy afternoons of the festive season, it’s time to start looking forward to your next big trip to help get you through the post-holiday blues. Leading travel search site and app Skyscanner has compiled data out of KSA from the past year to bring you the best tips and tricks that will help you smarten your holiday bookings and spending in 2019.
fly on a thursday AVOID THE RUSH
Over the last year, Skyscanner flight data has shown that the cheapest day of the week to fly out of Saudi Arabia is a Thursday, with Saturday being the most expensive. Based on average flight prices, travelers could save on average 10% by switching from a Saturday departure day to a Thursday departure day.
Travelers may also find it’s significantly cheaper to travel a day before or a day after their original departure dates. It also pays to use Skyscanner’s Month View search tool to find the cheapest flights for their destination
BOOK FLIGHTS ON A TUESDAY
Skyscanner data shows that Tuesdays tend to be the best day to jump online to book a cheap flight, whereas Wednesdays tend to be the most expensive day to book a flight. The jump between the two isn’t huge though – only 1.5%.
AVOID THE RUSH
Friday 16th August was the busiest day for outbound flights from Saudi Arabia in 2018 and typically Friday is the busiest day for travel, whereas Monday is the quietest.
BEST VALUE DESTINATIONS
Cairo and Istanbul led the way for most popular destinations from KSA in 2018, but for those looking for the best value flights, the world’s travel search engine has number crunched the top destinations to uncover those with the biggest drop in average flight prices over the last year.
Ranking | Location | % price drop YoY |
1 | Mauritius | -36 |
2 | Bucharest, Romania | -16 |
3 | Vancouver, Canada | -14 |
4 | Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina | -14 |
5 | Goa, India | -13 |
6 | Ankara, Turkey | -11 |
7 | Jazan, Saudi Arabia | -11 |
8 | Bengaluru, India | -11 |
9 | Tbilisi, Georgia | -9 |
10 | Varanasi, India | -9 |
CONSIDER A NEARBY AIRPORT
Saudi Arabians should also consider flying out of a different airport nearby to save money. Travelers just need to click on ‘add nearby airports’ when creating a search and see if a short drive, bus or train journey could save them Riyals.
mix & match airlines
Fares don’t have to be booked as returns, instead you can save money by flying out with one airline and returning with another.
search everywhere
For those with a limited budget but unsure of where to go, Skyscanner’s great Search Everywhere tool, will find the cheapest destinations to travel to for a specific date period. For example, travelers could fly from Riyadh to Kuwait in February from as little as SAR 760* return (price correct at time of publication – flight details here)
monitor prices
And lastly, the best way of getting a good fare is to keep track of the prices by setting up a price alert so that you are notified when prices rise or fall on a specific route.
*Published January 2019 based on data analysis from Skyscanner over the last year (2018). Any prices included correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change and/or availability.