Eurostat: Package holiday prices in EU in August 2026 match 3.2% inflation, airfares down 0.4%
Package holiday prices in the European Union were 3.2 per cent higher in August 2026 than in August 2025, matching the overall inflation figure (3.2 per cent), EU statistics agency Eurostat said on September 25.
Meanwhile, passenger air transport prices decreased 0.4 per cent, remaining well below the headline inflation rate, Eurostat said.
Both package holidays and passenger air transport prices have fluctuated strongly since January 2025, with passenger air transport showing the greatest volatility, the statistics agency said.
Airfares rose 13.7 per cent in April 2025 year-on-year, then fell by 3.2 per cent in the following month.
Fluctuations remain visible in 2026, as flight prices started the year with a 2.9 per cent fall, followed by a sharp drop (-4.7 per cent) in April, a major rise in May (8.1 per cent) and moderate increases in the following months, compared with the respective months of 2025.
For package holidays, prices were 8.3 per cent and eight per cent higher in January and February 2025 than in the same months of the previous year, but from then on, the annual rate of change increased slowly.
Prices peaked again in April 2025 (7.7 per cent), then fell closer to the inflation rate between June and October 2025, before rising again. Like flight prices, package holiday prices also dropped in April 2026 (-0.5 per cent), but recovered in the following months.
In August 2026, flight prices increased the most in Greece (16.3 per cent) and Ireland (14.4 per cent) compared with August 2025. For 10 EU countries, flight prices fell, with Slovakia registering the largest drop (-61.2 per cent); for the remaining countries, declines ranged from -15.8 per cent in Spain to -0.9 per cent in Lithuania.
In the same month, package holiday prices rose the most in Belgium, up 16.2 per cent compared with August 2025. Portugal followed with a 14.3 per cent increase, ahead of Sweden (12.8 per cent), Lithuania (12.3 per cent) and Romania (+11.9 per cent). In contrast, four EU countries recorded package holiday price decreases: Estonia (-21.1 per cent), Spain (-5.2 per cent), Italy (-4.8 per cent) and Ireland (-0.4 per cent), Eurostat said.
(Main photo: Rudy Tiben)
