Airing on Friday at 8pm on Channel 4, Dispatches’ Kate Quilton investigates the world of summer holidays, after the Iran War sent jet fuel prices soaring resulting in thousands of flights being cancelled, to help holidaymakers plan ahead for their vacation.
In the documentary, Dispatches discusses how your summer holiday will be affected and reveals that up until 3 June, more than 500,000 global flights have been cancelled since the start of the Iran War on February 28.
Rory Boland, Travel Editor at Which? reveals in the programme “Airlines have quite a lot of leeway in terms of cancellations. As long as they give passengers 14 days’ notice of the cancellation, the passenger then can choose between a refund or re-routing a day later, or two days later, whatever the airline is going to offer them.”
However, Boland reveals that there are some protections for passengers: “If the airline is significantly changing your departure time {or} where you’re going from, it has to say: this is the situation, this is when we can get you there. You can either accept that or you can claim a refund.”
The fall in demand has seen prices drop in the holiday market; Dispatches has obtained exclusive data from flight comparison site Skyscanner on the top 10 destinations offering the biggest flight discounts:
Top 10 destinations with the biggest price drop for economy class, return departures in August 2026 (with prices compared to averages from August 2025)
- Cape Town – 20%
- Las Vegas – 19%
- Nice – 19%
- Bordeaux – 18%
- Florence – 17%
- Geneva – 15%
- Venice – 14%
- Tirana – 12%
- Osaka – 10%
- Berlin – 10%
Consumer champion Janes Hawkes said: “We will see some airlines starting to reduce their summer holiday fares, doing offers and deals in order to get those bums on seats. And the same with package holidays. They still need to be filled; they still need to be bought.”
But Rory Boland, Travel Editor, Which? warns that the discounts won’t last: “The cost of jet fuel has gone through the roof for airlines, and that is, at some point, going to be reflected in ticket costs. The reason it’s not at the moment is because demand is down. Fewer people are willing to book a flight, to pay for a summer holiday, because they are concerned about disruption.”
On the drop in prices due to the current lack of demand, he adds: “The implication for you, as a customer, is you might get a bargain. Not only will holidays go ahead in the summer, you might get a really good price.”
Dispatches also exclusively reveals data from Skyscanner revealing the most popular destination searches during April and May:
Top 5 most popular overall search destinations for economy class, return travel from the UK during the month of August:
- Bangkok
- Tokyo
- New York
- Tenerife
- Alicante
But Rory Boland warns on the differing levels of risk in booking flights: “There is a big difference between long haul and short haul in terms of the protections you enjoy from the airlines. The UK and the EU have the gold standard of protection for flight cancellations, flight disruptions… once you start going beyond the UK and EU airlines, then you are at the mercy of the laws of that country or that individual airline.”
Dispatches also explored the demand for staycations and found an increase in average daily rates for short term holiday rentals of 27% in Blackpool, 25% in Devon and 20% in the Lake District, with the UK overall seeing costs 16% higher. According to Expedia, searches for UK accommodation are up 45% year on year.
Matt Rake, Resort Director, Butlin’s Bognor Regis, outlined the huge demand for Butlins’ UK resorts: “We were sold out for May half-term, 22% up in May. We had 30,000 scoops of ice cream sold across our three resorts, 35,000 burgers. We are up for our summer breaks and fully expect to be full and sold during the summer period.”
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