It’s no secret that travel is cheap right now. You can go pretty much anywhere in the world for less than you’ve ever been able to before.

In fact, you can go for up to half as much this May as you could last May. Crazy right?

For example, base fares from…

• Los Angeles, California, to Madrid, Spain, started at $664 in May 2008 and now start at just $215.
• New York City to London, England, started at $289 in May 2008 and now start at only $79.
• Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, started at $781 in May 2008 and now start at $351.

So you’re probably asking how this happened. To get the answer, I went straight to Robert Sessions, our product marketing manager and air travel guru.

He spilled the beans on the low airfares – “These fares are great right now, but they won’t last forever. Customers have to book and complete travel by June 1. After June 1, customers can expect to see prices increase by a few hundred dollars. There will still be deals, but not the steals we are seeing now.”

To put it plainly, airlines are cutting prices in hopes of attracting you – the traveler – to book before and start your trip before June 1. And June 1 is important because it is the start of what us travel industry folks call “high season,” which is a period of increased travel during the summer months when most people are out of school or can take off of work.

Because many people aren’t able to travel for leisure in May, the airlines have space to fill on their flights. Thus, when there is additional space on their flights, these airlines often work with STA Travel to offer these seats at a really cheap rate.  Since we cater to students and young professionals, customers who often have more flexible schedules or may have finished-up classes by mid-May, the airlines look to us to fill those seats.

The deals are available to pretty much everywhere right now, but a few places are especially inexpensive:

• London
• Paris
• Las Vegas
• Miami
• Honolulu

Photo Credit: timparkinson on Flickr