“Extreme day trippers” on the rise

[Peter Wilde]

BBC today claims that - at least in Scotland - more people are taking flights out-and-back on the same day, just for leisure purposes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce84zd68242o

When Riley and his mum Rhona Paton board a plane to Norway at the weekend, it will be his 40th flight - an impressive milestone given he is just six years old.

Rhona and Riley have been on three trips so far in 2026, and are planning to do one per month for the rest of the year...

...Analysis of searches for same-day return international flights shows increases from a number of UK airports year-on-year...

The woman quoted claims that she offsets the carbon emissions from her family’s frequent flying. But surely this is just tokenism, as complete and proper offsetting of this volume of short-haul flying would be next to impossible for any normal person or family?

Quite apart from the emissions directly attributable to each person’s seat occupancy, if a lot of people start behaving in this way it will encourage low-cost airlines to put on more flights. Surely a mad trend, even if one discounts the current economic situation and rise in jet-fuel prices.

 

[lachlan]

BBC today claims that - at least in Scotland - more people are taking flights out-and-back on the same day, just for leisure purposes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce84zd68242o

The woman quoted claims that she offsets the carbon emissions from her family’s frequent flying. But surely this is just tokenism, as complete and proper offsetting of this volume of short-haul flying would be next to impossible for any normal person or family?

Quite apart from the emissions directly attributable to each person’s seat occupancy, if a lot of people start behaving in this way it will encourage low-cost airlines to put on more flights. Surely a mad trend, even if one discounts the current economic situation and rise in jet-fuel prices.

If this becomes popular it would put to bed the "but the plane will still fly" arguments.

When I looked at carbon offsets recently I was surprised at just how cheap they were, and the claimed offset of the smallest unit I could buy was significantly more than the stated emissions of the flight. I would be curious to hear others' thoughts on the carbon offsets options out there.

That being said I don't believe offsetting should be viewed as a silver bullet for increasing emissions.

 

[gabrielhj07]

...if a lot of people start behaving in this way it will encourage low-cost airlines to put on more flights. Surely a mad trend, even if one discounts the current economic situation and rise in jet-fuel prices.

What's wrong with that?

 

[AndrewE]

What's wrong with that?

you are not worried by global warming then?

 

[Falcon1200]

The woman quoted claims that she offsets the carbon emissions from her family’s frequent flying. But surely this is just tokenism, as complete and proper offsetting of this volume of short-haul flying would be next to impossible for any normal person or family?

Indeed. If genuinely concerned about the planet she could just not fly! While still doing the other 'Green' things.

 

[gabrielhj07]

you are not worried by global warming then?

I'm not losing any sleep. Certainly not over whatever her contribution might be to aviation's tiny part of global emissions.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I hold my hand up. I am guilty. I posted in the “ flights you have been on thread” - yesterday April 8th 2026, I flew from MAN to the Isle of Man and back in a day. I am planning on doing more of such trips now I am retired. To me it is great fun.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I hold my hand up. I am guilty. I posted in the “ flights you have been on thread” - yesterday April 8th 2026, I flew from MAN to the Isle of Man and back in a day.

Hope you enjoyed your brief stay, you certainly got the best of the weather!

If this becomes popular it would put to bed the "but the plane will still fly" arguments.

Extreme day-tripping usually involves people planning their flights very carefully to get outbound and return flights at sensible times and sensible prices. They tend to travel where and when it is cheaper.

If it becomes more popular then simply supply-and-demand will kick in. Airfares for these types of trips will get more expensive and, as a consequence, fewer people will do it.

The woman quoted claims that she offsets the carbon emissions from her family’s frequent flying. But surely this is just tokenism, as complete and proper offsetting of this volume of short-haul flying would be next to impossible for any normal person or family?

Much of the wailing and gnashing of teeth about aviation emissions is tokenism too. Somewhere between 2% and 8% of emissions in the UK are from aviation, depending on who you listen to. Assuming the higher figure, that still means that 92% of emissions still come from somewhere else.

I do somewhere between 18 and 25 flights a year and they're nearly all leisure trips. Sure, for me it is a consequence of living in the Isle of Man, but I'm not going to feel guilty about it.

 

[Mojo]

There are a number of 'Extreme day trips' Facebook pages, where people share tips and trip reports. I'm a member of one of them which has got over 350,000 members.

 

[gabrielhj07]

Do you think you could leave some hyperbole for the rest of us?

Just counted and I'm up to 20 passenger flights this year, no plans to stop. Obviously in the interests of Johnny Polar Bear I should go and throw myself off the Humber Bridge. Best of all I did this without any encouragement from Mr Trump or Mr Putin.

But seriously, what is your beef with people going on holiday?

 

[The North Briton]

In the past, I’ve made day trips by air to Amsterdam, Dublin, Düsseldorf and even visited the Netherlands one way by air and returning by sea from the Hook of Holland.
Sadly it’s very difficult to achieve this today (at least, at reasonable cost), because budget airlines seem more interested in serving obscure destinations in Eastern and Southern Europe than providing double-daily rotations to nearby cities. And of course the Stena HSS service is no more.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

There is no magic bullet imho. If you make flights more expensive then only the wealthy and business people can afford them which is not fair to those less well off. Not easy to solve.

 

[Airline Man]

I’ve done Day trips to Los Angeles and New York and the New York one was on Concorde. i gave the environment a body blow.

 

[ABB125]

I’ve done Day trips to Los Angeles and New York and the New York one was on Concorde. i gave the environment a body blow.

Day trip to Los Angeles is... Impressive!

I've done a short weekend in New York recently, purely to fly on a particular plane, but I think it would be a shame to not spend at least a bit longer in some of these places. Having said that, I'm always up for a challenge, I'm kind of tempted with flying round the world over a weekend just for fun (around the world in 80 hours?), then go back the other way the following weekend. But that's another step up in terms of cost, which I don't particularly want to spend at the moment!

 

[AlterEgo]

A day trip I have coming up later this year is Sint Maarten to Anguilla, the world's shortest international flight at just 12 miles. Also hoping they'll run the iconic Trislander that day too. It's the only one left flying in the world.

 

[Starmill]

Hope you enjoyed your brief stay, you certainly got the best of the weather!


Extreme day-tripping usually involves people planning their flights very carefully to get outbound and return flights at sensible times and sensible prices. They tend to travel where and when it is cheaper.

If it becomes more popular then simply supply-and-demand will kick in. Airfares for these types of trips will get more expensive and, as a consequence, fewer people will do it.



Much of the wailing and gnashing of teeth about aviation emissions is tokenism too. Somewhere between 2% and 8% of emissions in the UK are from aviation, depending on who you listen to. Assuming the higher figure, that still means that 92% of emissions still come from somewhere else.

I do somewhere between 18 and 25 flights a year and they're nearly all leisure trips. Sure, for me it is a consequence of living in the Isle of Man, but I'm not going to feel guilty about it.

For an island the size of Isle of Man I don't think anyone seriously suggests that aviation won't continue to play a vital role. A day return to Glasgow or wherever it may be is in no way an extraordinary waste. It's totally unlike someone doing Edinburgh - Marrakech (or whatever pair it may be, that's just an example) for just a single day which loads up the fuel burn far, far faster for very limited additional benefits over a Douglas resident who wants a day of shopping and a meal with friends in Manchester.

 

[Bletchleyite]

For an island the size of Isle of Man I don't think anyone seriously suggests that aviation won't continue to play a vital role. A day return to Glasgow or wherever it may be is in no way an extraordinary waste. It's totally unlike someone doing Edinburgh - Marrakech (or whatever pair it may be, that's just an example) for just a single day which loads up the fuel burn far, far faster for very limited additional benefits over a Douglas resident who wants a day of shopping and a meal with friends in Manchester.

It's also of note that the carbon emissions per seat between a modern aircraft (particularly a turboprop) and a Voyager don't differ wildly. Electric trains come off much better, though.

 

[Iskra]

I'm all for extreme day trips and extreme trips generally, and I have done many but mainly by rail.

I do question what these people are getting out of this though; even if you really like flying on aircraft most within Europe are incredibly bland and you'd be better doing fewer air experience flights which would be higher quality. They also can't really be seeing too much at the destination because of how much time would be wasted at airports or travelling to/from them. Are they just flying to places to claim they've been there? Technically, yes they have but if you're only in a destination a few hours, it barely counts as it's not much of a cultural experience and a very inefficient use of time.

 

[zero]

They also can't really be seeing too much at the destination because of how much time would be wasted at airports or travelling to/from them. Are they just flying to places to claim they've been there? Technically, yes they have but if you're only in a destination a few hours, it barely counts as it's not much of a cultural experience and a very inefficient use of time.

My last "proper" extreme day trip was also to Norway in 2017. I got up at 3am, drove to Heathrow, boarded at 7am and landed in Oslo at 10am. I got back to the airport at 6pm and arrived home at 10.30pm. So I got about 9 hours there. As a transport enthusiast, the "cultural experience" includes the destination airport.

From the UK to Europe it is difficult to get much more time than that on a day trip as the time difference means you can't arrive that early. I think the only true overnight flight is Aegean from Heathrow to Athens departing 10pm arriving 4am. From mainland Europe you may be able to achieve a longer day trip to the UK.

I once did a day trip to New Zealand from the UK. That also day trips to Switzerland, Thailand and Oman as well. I had around 12-18 hours of "cultural experience" in each place but all overnights were on planes. There was also some work involved which made the "extremeness" make sense.

Extreme day-tripping usually involves people planning their flights very carefully to get outbound and return flights at sensible times and sensible prices.

I don't think extreme and sensible belong in the same sentence. To me sensible times means waking up and sleeping at the times I normally would. Which would not leave very much time in the destination.

As I entered my 30s I started to prefer sensible timings on short trips, but this would involve one hotel night and does not provide much more time at the destination than a day trip.

 

[The Ham]

Much of the wailing and gnashing of teeth about aviation emissions is tokenism too. Somewhere between 2% and 8% of emissions in the UK are from aviation, depending on who you listen to. Assuming the higher figure, that still means that 92% of emissions still come from somewhere else.

I do somewhere between 18 and 25 flights a year and they're nearly all leisure trips. Sure, for me it is a consequence of living in the Isle of Man, but I'm not going to feel guilty about it.

Clearly there's always gong to be a need for flights, especially for islands, however the thing with percentage emissions is that almost everything else can fairly easily see reductions from electrification and so those percentages for flying will likely increase.

There's some figures suggest that 2022 was 7%, current rates (2025) are 9% but by 2030 they could be as high as 18%.

Do you think you could leave some hyperbole for the rest of us?

Just counted and I'm up to 20 passenger flights this year, no plans to stop. Obviously in the interests of Johnny Polar Bear I should go and throw myself off the Humber Bridge. Best of all I did this without any encouragement from Mr Trump or Mr Putin.

But seriously, what is your beef with people going on holiday?

I doubt many people have an issue with people going on holiday.

Where they may have an issue is when someone is flying more than once a week (currently week 15 of 2026) and stating that it's holidays and others therefore shouldn't have an issue with them flying as is only holidays (especially when those reading it may have less than 4 holidays a year).

 

[xotGD]

Anyone who enjoys getting up at stupid o'clock to catch the 06:00 Ryanair to wherever has a strange concept of fun.

Anyway, the vast majority of international day trips will be business trips, with the poor traveller coerced into a ridiculously early start and unhealthily long day by a boss who doesn't want to pay for a hotel stay.

 

[pitdiver]

Slightly off topic, a few years ago I was involved in a " jail break" ie seeing how far you can get from London on £10 and a passport. Has anybody had experience of this type of activity and how far did they get.

 

[sh24]

I did a few of these when BA launched day trip fares 10-12 years ago. Good fun to head somwhere interesting for a bit of culture and a nice long lunch. MUC (Munich), BCN (Barcelona amazingly without having my wallet nicked), HAM (Hamburg) and MAD (Madrid) from memory.

 

[TravelDream]

Anyone who enjoys getting up at stupid o'clock to catch the 06:00 Ryanair to wherever has a strange concept of fun.

Different people have different tolerances to things. Maybe tolerance is the wrong word. I don't have an issue with waking up early (you can sleep on the plane) and never find airports stressful as some people seem to.

I enjoyed the one I did and I wouldn't mind doing one again.

 

[Tetchytyke]

There's some figures suggest that 2022 was 7%, current rates (2025) are 9% but by 2030 they could be as high as 18%.

The big issue causing emissions increases is the rise of private aviation. Note they really do clobber the environment, private jets have an astronomical environmental cost because they don’t have many people on them.

Until the use of private aviation is restricted, everything else is just peeing in the wind.

 

[philosopher]

Anyone who enjoys getting up at stupid o'clock to catch the 06:00 Ryanair to wherever has a strange concept of fun.

Anyway, the vast majority of international day trips will be business trips, with the poor traveller coerced into a ridiculously early start and unhealthily long day by a boss who doesn't want to pay for a hotel stay.

I too fall into the camp of avoiding extremely early flights unless there is absolutely no choice. I do not sleep well on planes and the whole stress of getting up at stupid o’clock will mean I will likely have a poor night’s sleep beforehand. Being tired also tends to make the airport experience more stressful, e.g you are more likely to forget to put something in the tray when going through security.

I would rather pay more for a flight leaving at a more reasonable time. As a result I will either fly later in the day or the previous evening and spend an extra day at my destination.

I guess this means day trips by plane are out of the question for me.

 

[stadler]

These extreme day trips are a fantastic way to visit countries and save money on hotels. I have done day trips to many different countries. The hotel costs can be very expensive. If you time it right and the flight timetables work out well then you can depart in the early morning and arrive back in the late evening and have an entire day (even as long as eight or nine or ten hours) in the country. But you have to live fairly near an airport or else you will have to wake up very early. You can also do day trips by ferry (the Newhaven to Dieppe is one i have done many times as a day trip) if you live near the South East Coast area. Or even international Eurostar day trips entirely by train (even as far as Germany works) are possible. But the cheapest day trips are by using the Easyjet or Ryanair or Wizzair flights.

 

[Starmill]

The problem with early flights is the difficulty in accounting for airports which are poorly run and poorly staffed, or which are undergoing construction works. Most airports can accommodate someone joining the back of the security queue at 0600 for a flight departing at 0720 without a problem. Many would get you from the bus or rail station to the aircraft gate in under 30 minutes. The problem is the few that don't and according worries.

 

[Airline Man]

Day trip to Los Angeles is... Impressive!

I've done a short weekend in New York recently, purely to fly on a particular plane, but I think it would be a shame to not spend at least a bit longer in some of these places. Having said that, I'm always up for a challenge, I'm kind of tempted with flying round the world over a weekend just for fun (around the world in 80 hours?), then go back the other way the following weekend. But that's another step up in terms of cost, which I don't particularly want to spend at the moment!

It wasn’t meant to be that way! I used to work for British Caledonian and went to LA to test a new reservation system enhancement. We were met at the airport and told that it wasn’t available so elected to come straight back on the same aircraft!

This was before email so communication was still by telex!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Apr 2026 ==

When I joined BA in 1988 we had ‘Funflyers’. It was a lottery. Passengers paid a dirt cheap fare and the day before departure they were allocated space on a short haul day return trip at ’random’. Although it always seemed to be Paris, Amsterdam or Brussels.

 

[Shimbleshanks]

I recently turned what was going to be a two-day work trip from Gatwick to Dublin into two consecutive day return trips, owing to domestic circumstances. (The Missus was away and someone needed to put the chickens to bed for the night.) So that was two lots of stressful driving to and from the airport, with the added 'bonus' on the second morning of having to locate the hire car that I'd parked in Dublin Airport car park for the night.
I said 'never again', though it did work out rather cheaper than an overnight stay, Dublin hotel prices being what they are. But now I'm off on a day trip to Portadown, via Belfast International on Thursday. Keeping my fingers crossed that flights, buses and trains are all on time...