In travel, January is the moment when holiday interest surges again, and it marks Skyscanner’s biggest rise in searches and sessions. After the festive season, plenty of people feel ready for a change of scenery and start hunting for their next break. It gives them something fresh to look forward to and a reason to start dreaming about getting away.
Long haul and summer trips sit at the front of many travellers minds. Lunar New Year prompts movement and family travel. Easter school breaks encourage early planning among parents. A general focus on value nudges travellers into more comparison behaviour, especially through mid quarter. This combination creates a long window of inspiration, evaluation and decision making. Advertisers who stay present through this period catch travellers at multiple points along that journey. When partners drop budgets in February and March, they miss travellers who still feel undecided.
This guide breaks down the steps advertisers can take to convert this wave of demand into sustained growth.
1. Plan for the full quarter, not just January
January is only the start of a much larger opportunity.Q1 peak is one of the few peak moments in the year that spans several months. Data consistently shows global flight searches increase by +31% month-on-month, and flight redirects rise by +32%, making it one of the most significant booking spikes of the year. However, this peak doesn’t begin and end in January. Travel demand remains high throughout Q1:
- Monthly global users stay elevated: +18% in January, +5% in February, +12% in March (vs December).
- Flight search volumes continue to climb: +31% in January, +12% in February, and +21% in March.
- Flight redirect volumes show even more growth, further evidencing this high intent period: +32% in January, +15% in February, and +27% in March.
Too often though advertisers over-index on January and ignore the months that follow. Advertisers should treat January, February, and March as equally valuable, using consistent visibility and refreshed messaging to keep momentum alive. To keep your message in strong approach Q1 as a connected campaign period, not just a January push. Ensure your budget, creative, and messaging are calibrated to capture intent across all three months, adapting as traveller needs evolve from early-stage inspiration to shorter-term decision-making.
2. Capitalise on less competition in February and March
Many brands load their entire push into the first month of the year, which creates a crowded start and a quieter landscape immediately after. When the noise drops in February and March, your ads face far less competition, so even modest budgets work harder. You get more space to influence travellers who are still deciding where and when to go, and your visibility holds steady while others pull back. This is often the moment when travellers revisit earlier searches and move closer to booking, making mid quarter spend surprisingly efficient.Skipping the Q1 surge moment could mean handing that demand to competitors who stay active.
3. Show up across Q1 to capture early-stage planners
Travellers may not complete their booking immediately, but they are laying the groundwork. It’s natural for bookings to soften after the New Year rush, but this does not mean travellers are disengaged. They use this time to check routes, play with dates and consider pricing patterns. They may not complete their booking immediately, but they are laying the groundwork, actively researching, comparing and shaping their shortlists. Visibility during this phase influences the bookings that land later. Brands that stay present during this period remain part of the shortlist. These early exploration stages shape their eventual decisions more than most advertisers realise. If brands disappear during this period, they lose influence long before the booking happens. Staying visible supports performance by ensuring your offer is familiar when travellers return ready to commit.
4. Build steady visibility rather than peaks and dips
Keeping your brand visible throughout the quarter strengthens your chance of being chosen when travellers finally commit. A smooth pattern of delivery helps travellers recognise and trust your brand when they return to compare flights again. Success during Q1 is driven by smart positioning in high-intent moments. Route coverage, mobile-led placements and performance formats are essential to capturing demand. Maintaining a presence captures intent that is already in motion. It strengthens efficiency by meeting travellers at the precise moment they are weighing up their options, which ultimately serves both short term conversions and longer term preference. Partners who maintain coverage across Q1 benefit from:
- Reaching travellers during real moments of decision making
- Keeping brand familiarity high while others pull back
- Capturing price sensitive travellers who shop around more during February
- Staying in the running when long haul and summer planning kicks in again toward March
5. Engage travellers with multi-format storytelling
Traveller behaviour is no longer linear. People move fluidly between browsing content, comparing routes, reading articles, checking social inspiration and returning to flight search when they are ready to act. Consistent messaging across formats helps brands stay present through every loop in this journey. Rich, story-led creative builds preference early, while tailored assets in the lower funnel support action. Avoid landing users on dead ends. Direct them to content hubs, destination stories or route-specific pages that reinforce relevance and keep momentum strong. A seamless creative narrative across display, search, social and editorial placements creates memorability that lasts beyond a single campaign window.
Sponsored Inline Ads help reclaim visibility on competitive routes by placing your brand directly in the results feed where travellers compare options. Booking Panel Ads secure the final click by appearing just before travellers choose where to book. With more than 75% of Skyscanner traffic on mobile, these formats are especially impactful on smaller screens where focus is high and distractions low. Together, they offer full lower-funnel coverage to support both consideration and conversion.
6. Refresh your messaging to match mindsets
Maintaining visibility is important, but avoid creative fatigue. Use phased messaging, rotate formats, and update callouts to reflect where travellers are in their journey, from big-dream planners in January to shortlisting and booking behaviours in March.
January planners think differently from March planners. Early January is full of big travel dreams and long lead thinking. February brings a shift towards comparison. March leans into shorter breaks, school holidays and faster decision cycles. As searches remain elevated across all three months, refreshing your creative to match traveller mindset keeps your brand feeling relevant. This is not about reinventing your story. It is about small tweaks that reflect the needs of travellers who are getting closer to action. Let your messaging follow traveller motivations. Highlighting long haul inspiration early in the year works well. Family friendly messaging becomes more relevant as Easter approaches. Clear value cues speak directly to those comparing prices. Aligning creative with traveller mindsets keeps your ads feeling useful rather than intrusive.
Conclusion: From one-off moments to sustained growth
Black Friday and Q1 aren’t just isolated spikes. They’re part of a continuous, high-intent travel window that rewards advertisers who plan ahead, maintain presence, and tell great stories. Whether your objective is to boost performance, build brand affinity, or launch new routes, Skyscanner offers a high-intent platform with the scale and tools to drive real business outcomes. By embracing a multi-moment, full-funnel approach and layering in tactical levers like mobile targeting, route coverage, and collaborative airline x destination campaigns advertisers can turn seasonal intent into long-term gains.
Need help mapping your campaign to this journey? Your Skyscanner team is here to help.
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