Brits hoping to escape to sunnier climes during October half-term are likely to find themselves out of pocket after prices soared.
Ongoing airport chaos has caused demand to outstrip supply and several popular travel routes are now hundreds of pounds more expensive than they were pre-pandemic.
A new study by consumer champion Which? Found that some one-way fares had trebled since 2019.
They looked at prices from six of England's biggest airports – Birmingham, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Manchester and Stansted - to popular resorts such as Alicante, Antalya, Dubai, Dublin, Malaga and Tenerife.
On average prices were 42% more than three years ago.
The Daily Mail reported the findings, based on data by industry firm Skytra, who looked at the price of one-way journeys between the domestic and foreign airports at intervals of six months, three months and six weeks before the October school holidays.
A single flight from Gatwick to Dublin had surged from £42 three years ago to £160 – a 280% increase.
Skytra chief executive Elise Weber put the increases down to rising fuel costs and an increased demand for travel following the pandemic, with airport passenger caps exacerbating the problem.
Guy Hobbs, editor of Which? Travel, said in the Daily Mail: “Travellers have had a torrid time this year and our analysis shows they’re paying through the nose for their trouble.
“With fares so high, it’s even more important that airports and airlines are held to account for the unacceptable disruption travellers have faced.
“The Government should give the Civil Aviation Authority stronger powers so it can hit operators with heavy fines when they flout the rules.”
The most expensive flight the study found was an £847 ticker from Heathrow to Dubai six weeks before the autumn break – up from £603 in 2019.
Amid the rising prices, a small number of fares went down.
A one-way ticket from Luton to Dublin booked six weeks before half-term was £17, having been £27 pre-pandemic.
A spokesman for Heathrow said: “Heathrow doesn’t stand to benefit from increased ticket prices this coming half-term.
“The unprecedented surge in passenger demand this summer, coupled with staffing shortages across the travel sector in Europe and the US, has inevitably pushed up prices – and that’s even before considering the higher fuel costs and rising inflation.”
