For the fourth year, Cheapflights.ca pulled data and crunched the numbers to come up with our Annual Airport Affordability Index to help you in your quest to get the best flight deals. The index, which uses average plane ticket prices our site users found during the month of August 2014 to rank 20 of the most popular airports serving Canadians, gives travellers a glimpse into the cheapest departure and arrival points.
The annual Cheapflights.ca Airport Affordability Index is a baseline for comparing airports and airfares, both in the moment and over time. The rankings include the previous year's position for each airport as well. While Kelowna made the jump into the top spot, St. John's gained the most ground versus last year. Meanwhile, the U.S. border airports slipped some in the rankings, showing the effect of the current currency disparity. Nonetheless, with travellers seeing an average airfare of C$414 from Bellingham to Honolulu in August versus C$493 from Vancouver, it's still worthwhile to do your homework and maybe take a drive. And don't always assume bigger is better when it comes to affordable airports either. In August, the airfares our users found from Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier to Miami averaged C$370 compared to C$415 when flying from Toronto's Pearson International.
"This year's Airport Affordability Index underscores just how fluid airfares tend to be," said Melisse Hinkle, editor at Cheapflights.ca. "While getting away is a priority for many Canadians, so too is being savvy about saving on travel. The good news is that your hometown airport might be a truly affordable option. But the real takeaways are that finding flight deals often means exploring all your options, and being flexible can be the real key to stretching your travel budget."
Cheapflights.ca's sister site in the U.S., Cheapflights.com, also issues an annual Airport Affordability Rankings featuring the average airfare to key destinations for the 101 most popular airports in the U.S. As many Canadians travel to, from and within the U.S., this report can be an additional useful guide for seeing how these airports stack up.
As always, we recommend you to do your homework as deals can pop up anywhere. Our rankings provide travellers with a way of seeing how airports measure up and serve as a handy baseline for savvy travellers planning their next departure or destination.
These rankings fluctuate year to year and prices can change frequently (and dramatically) along routes, but as always, there are a few key takeaways: do your research, check out all your options and, if you can, be flexible with your travel plans -- it could yield significant savings!
Take a look at the full list:
