India named cheapest country in the world for flights... with Malaysia in second place (but UK tickets cost THREE times as much)
- Survey shows India and Malaysia cheapest for flights
- The UK is the 22nd cheapest country for flights on average
- Wide differences between travel costs across countries is revealed
When it comes to air travel, India and Malaysia are the cheapest places to fly in the world according to a new survey on global transport.
Finland and Switzerland are the most expensive places to catch a plane, with Denmark coming out top overall as THE most expensive country to travel overall on all forms of transport.
The survey, carried out by Berlin based travel search website GoEuro, looked at 51 countries across five continents to work out the average price to travel per 100 kilometres by plane, train and bus.
It might have been cheaper to fly... India's airfare wars have cut costs dramatically
According to the results India came up trumps costing just $10.36 (£6.28) on average to travel 100 kilometres on a commercial flight.
That's about a third of the cost of flights in the UK and less than one thirteenth of the cost of flying in the most expensive country in the world, Finland, where it costs $138.90 (£84) to fly the same distance.
In fact, Airfares in India are so low that it is often cheaper to travel by air than take the train: According to the survey, a 100 kilometre train journey in India costs $15.98 (£9.60) and going by bus the same distance $6.17 (£3.70).
It might be pretty but it's pretty expensive too... Denmark's average travel costs are the highest globally
Flight cost index shows the cheapest and most expensive flights in the world
The second cheapest country for air travel was Malaysia, where the cost was an average $12.27 (£7.42) to fly 100 kilometres, South Africa was third at $12.48 (£7.54) and suprisingly, Australia was number four costing $13.09 (£7.90) over the same distance.
India's current airfare war is the reason given for the low prices, as airlines compete for the country’s growing middle class sector and the number of domestic travellers is projected to triple to 159 million by 2021.
So which countries should you avoid if you don’t want to burn a hole in your pocket? Denmark was followed closely by Switzerland as the second most expensive country overall costing an average of $39.84 (£24.10) and $38.28 (£23.15) respectively to travel 100km, putting them way ahead of the UK's modest $9.59 (£5.80).
Bargains to be had! The UK is the 22nd cheapest country to travel, beating many European destinations
'Yes I know this way's cheaper but I'm a bit cold, can we fly next time?'
Train prices index compares the prices of train travel around the world
The extent of the difference between travel costs is clear with the data showing the average cost of travelling 100km in South Africa is just $1.88 (£1.13), a fraction of the price of those countries in the top ten, and a staggering 4.7 per cent of the price of Denmark's average.
The UK is believe it or not the 22nd cheapest country to travel in using all three forms of transport, making it cheaper than most West European countries apart from Spain as well as the US and India.
