Searches for flights to Southeast Asia drop dramatically according to Cheapflights.co.uk

Figures released today by Cheapflights.co.uk, the UK's largest travel price comparison website, reveal that bird flu appears to be having an impact on travellers as they make their 2006 holiday decisions. January 2006 saw a marked decrease in searches for flight to Bangkok on Cheapflights.co.uk, causing the city to fall almost 10 spots from 6th to 14th place.

Holiday destinations benefiting from the Asian health crisis include New York (1), Tenerife (2), Malaga (3) and Paris (7). The biggest jump, however, went to Barcelona, which moved into the top ten from 12th to 8th place.

David Soskin, CEO for Cheapflights.co.uk says: "The shift in popularity away from Bangkok can almost certainly be attributed to the bird flu outbreak in South East Asia and people's uncertainty about flying to places afflicted by the H5N1 strain. January is also a traditionally quiet month for long haul searches on the site, with people preferring to focus on quick, post-Christmas winter sunshine breaks and long haul later on in the year."

A full breakdown of the most searched for locations for Cheapflights, can be found below:

Market Report January 2006 Flights Cheapflights.co.uk Jan 06 Dec 1. New York 01 2. Tenerife 02 3. Malaga 03 4. Alicante 04 5. Amsterdam 09 6. Dublin 07 7. Paris 08 8. Barcelona 12 9. Orlando 05 10. London 11

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About Cheapflights:

Cheapflights is the world's largest independent online travel price comparison service, operating Cheapflights.co.uk, and Cheapflights.com in the USA.

The company invented travel price search-and-compare functionality on the Internet in 1996 and introduced pay per click (PPC) in 2000. Today, Cheapflights' users search through over one million travel bargains from over 700 ABTA- and ATOL-bonded travel companies, airlines and accommodation providers in the UK alone. Another 200 plus clients advertise on the company's US and global accommodation sites. Users can click through to their chosen supplier to book or often to telephone lines dedicated to their chosen deal.

Leading online measurement company Hitwise describes Cheapflights.co.uk as 'the UK's favourite travel price comparison site'; and the company's unique user numbers, including the UK, support this, reaching 4,000,000 unique users in January 2005 (source: ABCe and Company Logfiles). Additionally, Cheapflights will drove over �1 billion pounds worth of travel product sales globally in 2005.

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