Cheap flights encourage city breaks

Cheap flights are encouraging more people to consider short city breaks, an industry expert has said.

Neil Smillie, the head of Holidays-Direct, explained that low-cost carriers had widened the market for city breaks by offering flights to a host of European capitals from regional hubs in the UK.

"The days of only having one main two-week holiday a year are a thing of the past as more people realise they can squeeze in extra time abroad in the form of city breaks," he commented.

"It is no longer the elite who take time away from their day-to-day lives to jet off on a plane to escape for a couple of days. Due to the rise of low-cost airlines, people from all walks of life are now packing a weekend case and heading off to popular European destinations."

Some office workers have even started taking 'red eye weekends' Mr Smillie added. These are when passengers fly to a holiday location straight after work on a Friday and return early on Monday morning to be in the office in time for 9am.

Recently, easyJet said that it believes low-cost flights have completely revolutionised the UK's travel industry and brought about a profound shift in the way people plan and book holidays.

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