Winter Sun for a Family of Four: How to Compare UK Flight Fares Like-for-Like (Winter 2026/27)
This article answers one question only: for a family of four flying a winter-sun return from a UK airport, how do you compare two fares fairly, so you can tell a genuine like-for-like difference from two different holidays? It works through eight winter return fares covering the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Algarve, Malta and Cyprus, all taken from the same check on 22 September 2026 and on a single fare basis — and it sets out when a fare gap between two routes is a real comparison and when it is not.
That is a different job from a route-news item, a destination guide or a hotel roundup. It does not rate resorts or report new schedules as news; it assumes you already have a shortlist of two or three winter-sun routes and need to compare what four of you would pay to fly each one. Where this article touches the airlines' winter 2026/27 announcements, it does so only as background, attributed and unverified.
Airline winter 2026/27 schedules are filed, and the UK end of the winter-sun map is broader than last season. easyJet's media centre statement dated 24 April 2026 says the airline is launching nine new routes from six UK airports, with new winter services that include the Canary Islands, and Ryanair's corporate newsroom item dated 16 July 2026 sets out a winter 2026 schedule covering 1,700 routes across 35 countries with more than 140 new routes. Both sets of figures are the airlines' own published claims, linked with their dates below, and Family Miles Guide has not independently verified them.
The basis matters more than any single number. Every price below is a per-person "from" fare for a winter return, hand luggage only, taken from the same check on 22 September 2026. Those fares move with dates, demand and availability, so treat them as a starting point for your own search rather than as a quotation. None of them is an all-in holiday price, and no accommodation, transfer, food or insurance figure is quoted anywhere in this article, because no verified figures for those were checked.
Ad — some links in this article are affiliate links. Family Miles Guide may earn a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. Commissions do not decide which routes are compared or which fares are quoted, and every price carries its check date.
Background: what the airlines say about winter 2026/27
easyJet's media centre statement dated 24 April 2026 sets out nine new routes from six UK airports, with new winter services that include the Canary Islands. Ryanair's corporate newsroom item dated 16 July 2026 sets out a winter 2026 schedule covering 1,700 routes, 35 countries and more than 140 new routes. Both are claims published by the airlines themselves and neither has been independently verified here; the route-level evidence this article actually uses is the fare check below, not the announcements.
The practical effect for families is more UK departure airports with winter-sun seats — Luton, Stansted, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh all appear in the fare check below — plus more weekly departures on routes that already existed. Extra capacity on a route gives carriers a reason to compete on price, but it does not guarantee a low fare on the exact week your school breaks. The week you fly still matters more than the brand on the tail.
If you are starting from scratch, the Family Miles Guide UK flights hub collects the airport and route basics before you get as far as comparing fares.
The verified fares: what four winter returns actually cost
The table below is the backbone of this article. Every figure is a live-feed "from" price for one person, winter return, hand luggage only, checked on 22 September 2026. The four-traveller column is a simple multiplication of the per-person fare, not a package price quoted by an airline or an agent. "From" prices move with dates and demand, so use them to narrow a shortlist rather than as a quote.
| Route | Destination | Per person, from | Four travellers (four × the per-person fare) |
|---|---|---|---|
| London Luton (LTN) – Faro (FAO) | Algarve | £52 | about £208 |
| London Gatwick (LGW) – Malta (MLA) | Malta | £130 | about £520 |
| London Gatwick (LGW) – Tenerife South (TFS) | Canary Islands | £163 | about £652 |
| Edinburgh (EDI) – Madeira (FNC) | Madeira | £220 | about £880 |
| Manchester (MAN) – Larnaca (LCA) | Cyprus | £274 | about £1,096 |
| London Stansted (STN) – Lanzarote (ACE) | Canary Islands | £282 | about £1,128 |
| Manchester (MAN) – Gran Canaria (LPA) | Canary Islands | £286 | about £1,144 |
| Birmingham (BHX) – Fuerteventura (FUE) | Canary Islands | £435 | about £1,740 |
Read the pattern rather than any single line. On the same basis and the same check date, the lowest verified winter return in the set was from £52 per person on London Luton to Faro, which comes to about £208 for four travellers at that fare — while the highest in the set, Birmingham to Fuerteventura, was from £435 per person, or about £1,740 for the same four travellers at that fare. That is a range of just over £1,500 between the lowest-priced and the most expensive lines, and it spans eight routes, six departure airports and five destinations: it is a spread of prices, not a saving, because no family flies all eight.
On this check date the Canary Islands were not the lowest-priced lines in the set. The lowest Canary return in the 22 September 2026 check was Gatwick to Tenerife South at from £163 per person, with Lanzarote and Gran Canaria around £282–£286 and Fuerteventura considerably higher. If a specific island is the point of your trip, see the Family Miles Guide Canary Islands guide, Madeira guide and Algarve guide for what each one asks of a family on the ground; this article stays on fares.
How to compare these fares without fooling yourself
A fare comparison is only meaningful when the departure airport, the dates and the fare basis all match. On that test, the eight fares above produce exactly one same-airport pair — both from London Gatwick:
- Gatwick to Malta from £130 per person against Gatwick to Tenerife South from £163 per person — a gap of £33 per person, or about £132 across four returns, on the same check date and the same fare basis.
That is a fare difference between two different destinations flown from the same airport, and it is useful if you are choosing between the two. It is not money saved on a single holiday, and it is not a trip total: Malta and Tenerife South are different places with different flight times and different costs on the ground.
Every other pairing in the table changes two variables at once. Edinburgh to Madeira at from £220 against Gatwick to Tenerife South at from £163 is a £57 per-person gap, but the departure airport and the destination both change, so no family would ever book the two as alternatives — the gap is not a saving, and it is not used as one here. The same applies to the Canary spread, from £163 (Gatwick–Tenerife South) to £435 (Birmingham–Fuerteventura): different airports and different islands.
So this article publishes no headline savings total. What it publishes instead is auditable: eight fares, one check date, one fare basis, the arithmetic shown line by line, and a per-route evidence list at the foot of the page. If a figure is not in the table or the evidence list, it has not been verified.
Where to start if you are shortlisting winter-sun routes
Start with your departure airport, because the UK end of the journey is where the biggest verified differences sit. Luton produced the lowest fare in this check by a wide margin, and Luton and Stansted are both worth pricing if you can reach either. This check did not cover Heathrow or any other airport, so no comparison for those is available here. If you are flying from Scotland, Edinburgh to Madeira at from £220 per person was the lowest non-London fare in this check, and it is also one of the shorter journeys: on published seasonal schedules, Madeira runs to roughly three and three-quarter hours from the UK, the Algarve under three, the Canaries about four, and Cyprus about four and a half. Those figures are indicative — block times vary by season, airport pair and aircraft type, so confirm the scheduled duration on the flight you are actually pricing.
Then match the route to the week. For many English authorities the February 2027 half-term week falls on either 8–12 February or 15–19 February 2027, depending on the council, and the two weeks can price differently on the same route. Half-term demand clusters into one or two weeks per region, so pricing both candidate weeks and two or three departure airports is the quickest way to find the lower fare. School term and holiday dates are published by each council; GOV.UK's school term and holiday dates finder points you to yours, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own calendars. Always book against your own school's published dates.
Do the low fares survive bags and seats?
This is where family flight savings are lost most often. Every fare in the table above is hand luggage only. Checked bags, larger cabin bags, seat selection and priority boarding are priced separately by each airline and vary by route, fare type and season, so no single figure would hold for your booking. The rule that protects you is simple: total the extras for four people on the specific flight before you pay, then compare that total against the next route on your list.
Four checks worth doing on the airline's own booking page, not a comparison site's summary:
What cabin bag is included in the fare you selected, and what size and weight limit applies to it.
What a checked bag costs for each leg, for each traveller — not just the outbound.
Whether sitting four people together carries a seat fee on that fare type.
How pushchairs, car seats and any sports kit are handled, since these are often free but sometimes need pre-booking.
The Family Miles Guide baggage-fee explainer walks through how low-cost carriers structure these charges so you know what to look for before the payment page.
Booking order that protects the fare you find
Work through the steps in this order and the fare you checked is much less likely to grow at checkout.
Fix your week and your shortlist. Confirm your school's half-term dates, then pick two or three departure airports and two route options from the table.
Compare the same route and dates on more than one booking site. Availability and fare buckets differ between retailers, so a fare that has gone on one can still be open on another — for example, check the Gatwick to Tenerife South fares on Expedia and cross-check the same dates through Trip.com.
Add the bag and seat total for four using the checklist above, then compare the all-in figure rather than the headline fare.
Book, then note the fare you paid. Prices for the same route move week to week; these eight routes are due to be re-checked on 15 October 2026, and the updated numbers will show what changed.
If the flight is delayed or cancelled
Winter-sun routes run in the season when UK weather disruption is most likely, so it is worth knowing the rules before you need them. Under UK261, passengers can be entitled to assistance — food, drink and overnight accommodation where relevant — and to compensation when they arrive at their destination airport three or more hours late, in the circumstances the regulator sets out. The Civil Aviation Authority's guidance on flight delays and its page explaining when compensation is payable set out the conditions, the exceptions and how to claim directly with the airline.
Some families prefer to hand the paperwork to a claims service instead. That route is available — AirAdvisor is one such service — and services of this kind typically charge a fee or take a share of any payout, so read the terms and weigh them against claiming directly with the airline before signing anything. Either way, keep boarding passes, booking confirmations and receipts for anything you had to buy.
Budget lines that are not in the fare table
Separate the rest of the trip from the flight figures, or the arithmetic stops meaning anything. Accommodation is the big one: on the Algarve route, four hand-luggage-only returns at from £52 each come to about £208, and where you stay for a week will comfortably exceed that. Self-catering is the usual lever for families — a wider search of self-catering stays in Tenerife shows the range for a Canary week, and the same approach works for apartments and holiday homes in the Algarve and Madeira.
Transfers, food, insurance and any excursions sit on their own lines too. No verified figures for those were checked for this article, so none are quoted — the numbers worth trusting here are the eight fares in the table, each carrying its check date and its basis. If you want an insurance policy that responds to delays and cancellations, read the cover levels in the policy wording rather than the price alone.
Frequently asked questions
What do the fares in the table include?
A per-person "from" price for a winter return flight, hand luggage only, checked on 22 September 2026. The four-traveller column is a simple multiplication of that per-person fare, not a package price quoted by an airline or agent. "From" prices move with dates, demand and availability.
Which route had the lowest verified return fare?
London Luton to Faro at from £52 per person — roughly £208 for four travellers at that fare. It is a live-feed "from" price from the 22 September 2026 check, so it will vary by date and by how early you book.
Is a lower fare on one route a saving?
Only when the comparison matches on departure airport, dates and fare basis. The one same-airport pair in this check is Gatwick to Malta (from £130) against Gatwick to Tenerife South (from £163), a gap of £33 per person or about £132 across four returns — a difference in what two different holidays cost to fly, not a saving on a single trip, and not a trip total.
Do these fares include a checked bag or seat choice?
No. Every fare quoted is hand luggage only. Checked bags, larger cabin bags and seat selection are sold separately by each airline and priced differently by route, fare type and season, so check the airline's own bag page for your flight and total the extras for all four travellers before paying.
When is February half term 2027?
It depends on your school and council. For many English authorities the February 2027 half-term week is either 8–12 February or 15–19 February 2027, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set different dates. Check GOV.UK's school term and holiday dates finder and your own school calendar before booking.
What are a family's rights if the flight is delayed?
Under UK261, passengers may be entitled to assistance at the airport and, in certain circumstances, to compensation when they arrive at their destination three or more hours late. The Civil Aviation Authority sets out the conditions, the exceptions and how to claim directly with the airline.
Last fact-checked 24 September 2026. Next review 15 October 2026.
Sources / Prices checked
Prices checked 2026-09-22 via Apify live feed (Skyscanner/Booking.com). Confidence: High. All figures in GBP.
Evidence record for the eight fares above — every entry per person, winter return, hand luggage only, from the same live-feed check on 22 September 2026:
London Luton (LTN) – Faro (FAO): from £52; four returns at that fare: about £208.
London Gatwick (LGW) – Malta (MLA): from £130; four returns: about £520.
London Gatwick (LGW) – Tenerife South (TFS): from £163; four returns: about £652.
Edinburgh (EDI) – Madeira (FNC): from £220; four returns: about £880.
Manchester (MAN) – Larnaca (LCA): from £274; four returns: about £1,096.
London Stansted (STN) – Lanzarote (ACE): from £282; four returns: about £1,128.
Manchester (MAN) – Gran Canaria (LPA): from £286; four returns: about £1,144.
Birmingham (BHX) – Fuerteventura (FUE): from £435; four returns: about £1,740.
Airline schedule claims are the airlines' own, as published in the announcements linked under "Background: what the airlines say about winter 2026/27", and Family Miles Guide has not independently verified them. No hotel, transfer, food or insurance prices were checked for this article, so none are quoted.
