Exclusive:
A travel expert has revealed the exact time when holidaymakers should head to the airport this Christmas, as the peak day to get away — ‘Flyaway Friday’ — commences this morning
An expert has revealed the exact time to go to the airport to avoid Christmas travel chaos.
Today marks ‘Flyaway Friday’ which is set to be the ‘peak’ day to get away, with airports especially busy and queues or delays predicted to be more likely. As such, a travel expert has revealed the best time to get to the airport this Christmas and how to make your experience feel more festive.
Miika Mäkitalo, CEO of HappyOrNot — the company behind the happy and sad buttons you see in airports and retail spaces — revealed that travellers should head to the airport in the morning, to avoid crowds and queues during the busy festive season.
This year, Christmas Day falls in the middle of the week on a Wednesday. “Our data shows [this] is theoretically the best day of the year to fly. However, in the UK this Christmas period is expected to be one of the busiest in a long time, with Heathrow expecting its busiest ever holiday season, and other British airports experiencing similar.
“Our data [also] shows that its less stressful to travel in the morning and more stressful to travel late at night. With this in mind, it’s never going to be a walk in the park to travel on these days, especially when you’re missing out on the festive fun,” shared Mr Mäkitalo. “The chaotic airport at Christmas is often employed as a Hollywood trope, so instead of worrying and getting stressed, why not lean into the novelty and enjoy the experience of recreating a scene from your favourite Christmas film.
“However, it’s worth remembering that even though it’s Christmas, it’s not a good idea to get too lost in the festivities and drink too much before getting on a plane, or your travel plans might not be the only thing giving you a headache.”
Many things can make travelling stressful — misplacing a passport, running out of phone charge, getting the whole family up early — but Mr Mäkitalo shared that security actually tends to be the least stressful part of going through an airport.
“One of the interesting things we found in our data is that people are most positive when going through security, and the area where they’re least positive is baggage claim,” he stated. “This stands to reason as people tend to be more patient at the start of their journeys than at the end.”
As a consequence, Mr Mäkitalo recommends to not check a bag in. “Stepping off the plane at your destination and being able to get out of a busy airport as soon as possible can mean avoiding the most stressful part of your journey,” he added.
Weather conditions can also cause last-minute changes to scheduled flights, including delays and cancellations, so Mr Mäkitalo recommends to keep yourself informed, be flexible and patient, as this can often be the best way of “preserving the festive spirit”.
Data collected by HappyOrNot unveiled that staff courtesy and helpfulness is the number one complaint passengers have when travelling. “As unfortunate and frustrating it is when travel plans go wrong, it is important to work with the staff in a friendly and calm manner as they are often simply the messenger and hate giving bad news as much as passengers hate hearing it,” Mr Mäkitalo said.
“Acknowledging that staff have no say in whether a flight is on time or cancelled and that they are in fact there to help you and problem solve is the first step in the right direction to finding a solution.”
In a final bid to make travellers’ airport experiences more festive, Mr Mäkitalo shared a lesser known activity you can do at the airport, which is especially good for children. “It is lesser known that some airports have observation decks where you can watch the planes take off and land which, for younger members of the family, can be exactly what is needed to add to the excitement and sparkle of going away for Christmas,” he revealed.
“The key thing is to just arrive in a timely manner and save yourself unnecessary stress and panic. Our data showing that queueing is the third biggest complaint for travelling passengers, so anything you can do to mitigate that will ease your journey.”
“Overall, what our data suggests is that even though the airport can be a stressful place, the majority of people have positive experiences in them, with the time spent travelling usually representing the start of an exciting and memorable adventure or the last step before being reunited with a loved one — so my advice is to just enjoy it for what it is,” Mr Mäkitalo concluded.
“The key to getting the best experience is being patient, prepared and injecting some Christmas cheer into your interactions with other travellers and staff.”
