Flying to Europe to post Christmas cards cheaper than using Royal Mail

If you have to send a large number of Christmas cards this year, you might be better off travelling to Europe to post them.

With the cost of a first-class stamp having risen to £1.65, it could be cheaper to buy a budget air fare and take advantage of more reasonable delivery services on the Continent

In Portugal sending a standard sized letter to the UK costs the equivalent of 73p. The cheapest same-day return flights to Lisbon in early December cost about £62, so anyone with 70 or more Christmas cards to send would be better off posting them from there.

An alternative would be flying to Milan where international mail costs the equivalent of £1.04 a letter and a same-day return flight is only £40.

If you had 100 cards to send you would save £30 by flying to Lisbon and £21 in Milan, enough to buy you a nice lunch and a bus fare to and from the airport.

Posting your cards from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, might also be cheaper depending on the weight of each one.

However, the calculations do not take into account the cost of your own time. The cheapest same-day return to Lisbon on Tuesday, December 12, leaves at 6.15am from Stansted, with the return flight not landing until half past midnight, making it a gruelling 18-hour round trip, not counting the journey home from the airport.

Only the most determined of scrooges is therefore likely to consider such a scheme, although those who have already booked a weekend city break in December might want to consider taking their Christmas cards with them to make a saving.

Royal Mail points out that Christmas cards can be sent with second-class stamps, which are pegged to inflation and cost 85p.

Nonetheless, many people are likely to be surprised at how much cheaper postage is in other European countries. Sending a standard size letter costs 71p in Germany with Deutsche Post, 57 per cent less than first-class post in the UK.

The 30p rise in the cost of a first-class stamp in October was the fifth increase in less than three years, with Royal Mail blaming “urgent” financial challenges and falling volumes of letters.

The price has doubled since March 2022, when it cost 85p to send a letter first class.

Royal Mail says that about 150 million Christmas cards are sent each year, the equivalent of about three for every adult in the UK.