How far in advance for intra-European flights?

My recent trip had 2 intra-European flights on SAS Airlines, which I booked at 5 and 7 months out. I was only willing to book that far because I booked refundable fares. I checked prices occasionally and never saw them go down.

I booked mine last year about 6-8 months ahead of the trip. I booked my Delta flights first because I was offsetting my Easy Jetreturn date from Dubrovnik to Amsterdam one day ahead of my Delta flights from Amsterdam to Spokane.

I booked some flights on Finnair for my son-in-law's trip to Finland/Norway but not until about 2-3 weeks before they left (and that was NOT because of me). :-) But I did notice they were more expensive then, as I had priced them a couple of months beforehand.

Our pattern in the past few years, for our month+ trips has been to need 1-2 intra European flights. We book them several months in advance checking legacy airlines and Skyscanner for budget airlines. If we choose a budget airline we always pay for a fare class that allows a checked bag and seat assignment as you never know what you might acquire while traveling.

From my point of view as a European: It depends. Mainly on what route it is, which airline, what time of the year and how flexible my plans are. But usually less than 6 months in advance.

If you’re thinking of using budget airlines (EasyJet, Ryanair, Wizzair etc) then the sooner you book the lower the price, but they rarely sell out far in advance so you can book at short notice if you need to.

Thank you for all the replies, I will start checking at about 7-9 months out and book when I see a good fare!

We've flown many times on budget European air carriers EasyJet, Ryanair, Vueling and Norwegian Air Shuttle.

I usually make reservations after making my ground plans. And I have no problems scheduling flights relatively soon to our trip. We're only good for 3-4 hour train trips, and we're thankful that they have affordable flights.

We often will visit a region and go from city to city on trains. But budget air carriers allow you to take in a completely different city on your way out of Europe. For example, visit Budapest and Vienna and then take a budget carrier to Lisbon on your way home. Or take in Copenhagen and/or one of the Scandinavian cities on the way back home.

Thank you David, very helpful!