Visa Europe has predicted that January 11 will be busiest day of the year for holiday flight bookings. 

The company said that the second week of January is normally a popular time for people to start thinking ahead for their summer breaks that year, however it might be a good idea for travellers to consider airport transfers as part of  any plans.

Those getting connecting flights might need to travel between airports, so it would be wise for them to allow enough time in between flights to make the journey. 

On January 12, 2010, Visa Cards were used to book more than 83,000 holiday flight bookings, while the figure for January 13, 2009, was almost 70,000.

Last year the most popular destination was Malaga in southern Spain, followed by Amsterdam and the Alicante region of Spain.

Tony Gibbons, head of debit at Visa Europe, said: “We expect to see in excess of 87,000 flight bookings taking place on Tuesday January 11 as people take advantage of outstanding deals being offered by many airlines and holiday companies.

“Historically, early January sees a huge surge in bookings as people’s thoughts turn to a sunny weekend away to ease the back-to-work blues. Many consumers are looking to ‘get away from it all’, especially if they are able to do so at a bargain price.”

He added: “City breaks, Valentine’s weekends or just some good, old-fashioned sunshine are exactly what people feel like at this time of year and we expect beach destinations such as Spain as well as European city breaks to feature strongly in the most popular destinations.

“As well as these popular choices, our data shows that an increasing number of British tourists are venturing further afield and we expect to see places such as the Middle East and Africa doing particularly well in 2011.”

 Copyright Press Association 2011

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