Cheaper for Britons to post Christmas cards from Europe than UK

Such savings would require card senders to seek out specific deals, Skyscanner said.

Flights from Luton to Belgrade, Serbia, can cost as little as £33. The cost of sending 100 Christmas cards abroad from the Serbian capital is just £78 – less than half the cost of first-class postage via Royal Mail, and would take between three and five days to arrive in Britain.

Analysis by The Telegraph, using data collated by Skyscanner on November 12, found similarly inexpensive flights to four other destinations in Europe with cheaper postage rates than in Britain.

These included a £28 return flight from Manchester to Memmingen, Germany, where sending 100 cards would cost just £91, and a £28 return trip from London Stansted to Milan, where it would cost £108.

Return flights from Luton to Sofia, Bulgaria and Faro, Portugal, were similarly priced. Posting 100 Christmas cards from these cities to Britain would cost less than £110.

In most cases, Telegraph analysis found that international stamps were cheaper abroad than first-class ones in Britain. In Japan, an international stamp costs 100 Yen, equivalent to 51p.

Royal Mail has faced criticism for the decision to raise the price of a first-class stamp by 30p to £1.65. The September increase marked the fifth rise in three years – a first-class stamp cost £1.25 this time last year.