Travel with Katie Butler: Booking holidays early has its benefits

Katie Butler writes: We enter now a term known in the travel industry as “peaks”. Just like we have peak times of year to travel (the busiest) we also have the busiest time of the year for new bookings – the time when many of us now concentrate on getting our holiday booked for the coming year.

January can be a bit of a miserable month for many – it marks the end of the party season, time to take down the decorations and for many, time to return to work.

January has for as long as I can remember been the busiest time of the year for new bookings and we are excited to see what “peaks” 2023 will look like.

I am looking to book a summer holiday, should I book now or will there be late deals available?

Last year was the year of the “late deal”, as restrictions lifted around the globe we saw more and more customers opting for a last minute deal.

However, this was more based around getting away in the very near future to reduce the risk of Covid related travel restrictions coming back into play.

We expect this pattern to continue into 2023, in fact we are still seeing this pattern now.

Depending on the time of year you wish or need to travel you are usually in with a good chance of grabbing a late deal but this doesn’t always mean you will get a bargain price.

In fact if you wish to travel at peak times, school holidays and over bank holidays etc – you might find that you will be paying more then you hoped for.

Booking early gives you access to more availability, meaning you are more likely to tick all the boxes of your holiday requirements and you certainly have a much better chance of getting free child places and more desirable flight times.

How have the Border Force strikes impacted arrivals back into the UK?

At the time of writing we have managed to speak with a small selection of customers who have arrived back into Manchester Airport on strike days and so far so good.

The Royal Navy have been drafted in to assist at passport control and the feedback so far is that they have experienced minimal delays which is great news. We have many customers yet to contact so as always “watch this space”.

The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, visited Manchester Airport to speak with Royal Navy personnel covering for striking Border Force workers.

The airport has so far reported no significant delays for inbound passengers at passport control as a result of the industrial action.

Leeds Bradford Airport has not been impacted with these strikes as they are not taking place at this regional airport.

I am delighted that the start to 2023 has started positively.

The shop has been busy both with customers in store and through our social media channels.

It appears to date that The Royal Navy have the strike action under control at passport control.

Happy 2023, let’s hope it’s a good one for us all.