What is the cheapest day of the week to fly?
Wednesday. Comparing each fare with the median of its own route, Wednesday departures were +3% and Tuesday +4%, while Friday was the dearest at +10.4%. Weekend departures cost more than midweek ones.
Piratefly price data, updated 2026-10-31 · 4,928,479 fares observed 2026-06-14 → 2026-10-30 · CC BY 4.0
Fare vs. the median of the same route, by day of departure
Source: Piratefly flight price research · 4,928,479 fares observed 2026-06-14 → 2026-10-30 · CC BY 4.0
The numbers
- Monday: +5% vs route median (7,453 flights).
- Tuesday: +4% vs route median (8,553 flights).
- Wednesday: +3% vs route median (8,664 flights).
- Thursday: +5.6% vs route median (8,075 flights).
- Friday: +10.4% vs route median (6,714 flights).
- Saturday: +8.4% vs route median (7,147 flights).
- Sunday: +8.2% vs route median (5,963 flights).
Know when your fare drops: free alert + weekly cheapest fares
Free. One email per real drop + one weekly digest. Unsubscribe in one click.
Source and method
One-way economy fares observed by Piratefly's price tracker, not booking data or surveys. Full method, all charts and CSV: When to book flights — Piratefly research. Open dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.23290390. Please credit "Piratefly" with a link to this page.
Check any route live: Fare Index · Piratefly API · MCP server.
More flight price questions
- How far in advance should you book a flight?
- Are last-minute flights cheaper?
- Is it cheaper to book flights months in advance?
- What are the cheapest cities to fly to this winter?
- Are flights getting more expensive?
- What is the cheapest month to fly?
- Are domestic flights cheaper than international flights?
- How much does a flight in Europe cost?