Prices for flight tickets to U.S. plummeting

Traveling to the United States by plane is getting cheaper and cheaper, according to figures from Skyscanner. Last year the average price for a return ticket from the Netherlands was 652 euros, 11 percent cheaper than the average of 734 euros such a ticket cost in 2015. Similar developments can be seen in flights to Canada, AD reports.

Ticket prices are also declining in the rest of the world, partly due to lower fuel prices. But at a decline of 3 percent, it is much less than the 11 percent fall in prices for tickets from the Netherlands to the United States and back.

Skyscanner, a major international comparison website for ticket prices, partly attributes the sharp decline in prices for tickets to the U.S. to increasing competition. More and more budget airlines are flying across the ocean. Norwegian Air, Wow Air (Iceland) and Thomas Cook Airlines (UK) are all flying from Europe to the United States. None of these airlines have direct flights from the Netherlands as yet, but Norwegian Air does have its eye on a spot at Schiphol.

Last week the Knowledge Institute for Mobility released a report stating that the increasing number of budget airlines flying to the United States wil have a limited affect on the Netherlands for the time being. Aviation economist Hans Heerkens now questions that conclusion. "For a family that wants to travel to the U.S., a few hundred euros saved is a lot of money." he said to AD.

Heerkens pointed out that the rise of these budget airlines is already pressuring prices of traditional airlines like KLM and British Airways. Now you can fly to new York with one of these airlines for between 350 and 400 euros, compared to previous years when tickets between 500 and 600 euros were the norm, he said.