Leading travel search site momondo.co.uk today launched Flight Insight - a unique tool that shows the impact six different variables have on flight price.

The feature, which sits above the flight search results, offers transparency on how airlines set their prices – highlighting essential factors to consider, whilst searching for cheap fares. The feature is affective currently on 400 set routes; however more routes are set to be added on a regular basis.

These factors include the number of days in advance, time of day, day of the week, seasonality, exact airport (if inbound city has more than one airport), and airline. Results are shown in a pie chart of trends, and an overview of most expensive/cheapest examples for each factor, for that particular route. A graph charting impact on flight price (in percentage increase) is also displayed. The graphs show how the different variables (e.g. days of the week, different airlines & airports) all affect price. The new Flight Insight tool uses data from millions of real prices found by users in previous searches on momondo.

For example, searching momondo for flights from London Airports to Nice, Flight Insight shows that the average return fare for this route is £142, the cheapest time to book is 31 days prior to departure, flights are cheapest on the fifth week of the year, BA City Flyer is typically the overall cheapest carrier, morning flights are cheaper than afternoon, and Mondays are the cheapest day to travel. Also, Luton is the cheapest London Airport and London City most expensive.

“Flight Insight is all about transparency – making it easier for travelers to see how different factors influence the price. For instance, knowing which days of the week, or times of the day are best to fly can be valuable information if you’re flexible and want to save money on your flight,” says Tore Pein Jensen, CMO of momondo.

The feature is based on an algorithm built to analyse millions of prices. As data collection is an ongoing process for momondo, the insights for each route are hence set to adapt to changes in each market, as more fares are collected in the future. The tool sits to the right of the existing ‘Price Calendar’ and ‘Best Fit Flight’ search features of momondo.