Airlines and holiday companies are slashing prices for travel in the next few weeks in a bid to tempt customers.

Normally air fares soar close to departure, but budget airlines are cutting ticket prices for trips the Canary Islands for the coming weekend.

Britain’s biggest low-cost carrier, easyJet, is selling tickets from Manchester to Tenerife on Saturday 16 November, returning a week later, for £68 return. The fare covers almost 4,000 miles of air travel and is only £20 more than the cheapest train ticket from Manchester to Birmingham on the same dates.

Fares from the UK to mainland Europe are even cheaper, with outstanding deals for next weekend. Flying out from London Stansted to Nantes in western France on Friday 22 November, returning two days later, is currently £38 return on Ryanair.

The same airline is selling Stansted-Santiago tickets on a range of dates in late November for £44 return.

British Airways is offering city breaks to Europe from its main hub, London Heathrow, for less than the cost of the air fare alone.

Flying on 3 December to Prague – where the Christmas market will be well under way – BA is charging £179 per person for flights plus two nights at the four-star Best Western Hotel Moran, including checked baggage and breakfast.

Booking the same flights without the hotel stay will actually cost the traveller £55 more than the city break package.

Holidays to beach destinations are also on offer at very low prices.

Jet2 Holidays has a week in Vilamoura on Portugal’s Algarve coast for £205 per person, departing from Manchester on 23 November. The deal includes flights with checked baggage, coach transfers from and to Faro airport and a “superior one-bedroom apartment” at the Prado do Golf resort. The deal works out at £1.20 for each hour of the trip.

Advent adventures abound in the tropics, too. Tui is selling a week’s all-inclusive package on the island of Sal in Cape Verde for £606, departing from Manchester on 1 December.

Once the festive season is under way, prices multiply. Exactly the same Tui package to Cape Verde is 235 per cent more expensive for holidaymakers leaving four weeks later on 29 December.

On easyJet from Manchester to Tenerife, flying out on 23 December and returning on 3 January costs £526 – almost eight times as much as the fare this weekend.