Internet searches for flights to the UK, from both America and Australia, have taken off by more than 50 per cent in the last year, as their nationals look to make the most of the weak pound.
In the 12 months to August 2009, the volume of searches for terms related to cheap flights to the UK rose by 55.6 per cent from the USA, and by 50.4 per cent from Australia.
The struggling pound also gave rise to the 'staycation', with many people preferring to holiday closer to home as a result of the Euro and other currencies offering poorer value than in recent years.
According to Hitwise UK, over half of both American and Australian searches for flights to the UK during August 2009 specified London, or one of its airports, as the destination. The second most popular destination for UK-bound flight searches from both countries was Edinburgh.
Other popular British travel related terms included 'map of england' (which was the most popular UK travel search term in the USA) and 'car hire uk' (the most popular non-flight related UK travel search term in Australia).
During August, British Airways was the second biggest recipient of searches for UK-bound flights in the USA after Cheapflights.com, while Virgin Atlantic ranked fifth. British Airways was also the most popular non-domestic airline website in the USA, ranking 17th in the commercial airlines category during August, three places ahead of Germany’s Lufthansa. Virgin Atlantic ranked 28th, while Ryanair was 47th and easyJet 68th.
“The fact that the main budget airlines serving the UK are receiving traffic from markets they don't currently serve directly implies that people are flying into London from long haul destinations and then using the city as a base for further domestic or European flights,” said Robin Goad of Hitwise UK. US Internet visits to Ryanair’s website have increased by 8.7% this year, while in Australia traffic to easyJet’s homepage has gone up by 50.4%.
When it comes to the popular 'kangaroo route' between Australia and the UK, the market remains extremely competitive. The airline that received the most traffic from Australian searches for flights to the UK during August was Malaysia Airlines, followed by Emirates and Etihad.
Virgin Atlantic ranked 5th, while British Airways was 6th and Qantas was fourth. Overall, Qantas is the most visited airline website in Australia, but the big Asian and Middle Eastern carriers (including Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Malaysia Airlines and Cathay Pacific - all of which fly between Australia and the UK) all picked up more Australian Internet visits than either British Airways or Virgin Atlantic.