Posting from abroad cheaper than UK first class, as latest moves on Royal Mail takeover revealed
Taking a cheap flight abroad could be the answer to sending Christmas cards for less due to the soaring cost of first-class stamps.
In a study by comparison site Skyscanner for the Telegraph newspaper, sending 100 cards at the new price of £1.65 each totals £165 while a return flight to Belgrade in Serbia is just £33 from London Luton Airport – and postage costs for the greetings to reach the UK within three to five days would be £78, saving £54 overall.
The story has also been featured on Radio 4’s Today programme and in other media, explaining it’s even cheaper to fly to Albania as Luton to Tirana is just £27 return, where 100 international stamps would be £85, again taking up to five days for the cards to reach the UK, making the total £112, just a pound more than the Serbian trip.
Even larger countries, such as Germany and Italy are cost-conscious options, with £28 return flights available from Manchester to Memmingen plus £91 for the German stamps, and Stansted to Milan plus Poste Italiane prices of £108, making £119 and £136 respectively.
Other options are Bulgaria and Portugal, with £29 return flights from Luton to Sofia plus £106 postage, totalling £135, and Luton to Faro plus £108 for stamps, £137 – all still significantly under the £165 UK stamps-only cost.
It’s not even just many European postal prices that are cheaper, in Japan an international stamp costs 100 yen, equivalent to 51p, while in India the price is around 45p, with delivery expected between four and 10 days.
While the European comparisons don’t take into account accommodation or travel to the airport costs – and postage in countries such as Sweden at £2.51 (35krona) and France at £2.49 (€2.99) is more expensive – the sums make shocking reading.
Royal Mail raised first-class stamp prices by 30p on 7 October, having already seen a 10p increase in April, which took second class stamps to 85p where it has stayed, while first class reached £1.35, almost double the 70p price from 2019.
The 22% price hike was the fifth increase in three years and roundly condemned by the greeting card industry as the annual inflation rate when it was announced in September was just 2.9%, and means first class letter postage has risen 117% in four years, while service levels have fallen.
Royal Mail has blamed the enormous increase on the “significant” cost of the universal service obligation under which it must maintain its six-day same price goes anywhere in the UK deliveries.
Reacting to Skyscanner’s data, Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams told MailOnline: “For many older people, cards are not just a way to share festive greetings – they are a deeply personal means of staying connected with loved ones in an increasingly digital world and, while digital greetings offer an alternative, they are not a solution for everyone.
“The post remains their mainstay, both for sending and receiving greeting cards and for paying bills. It’s important to keep postal services affordable because otherwise some older people could be left high and dry, without a basic form of communication on which they have happily relied throughout their lives.”
And charities are concerned as fewer cards sent means their income stream from charity collaborations with publishers is drying up, while the GCA and greetings industry are pushing the importance of continuing to send Christmas cards using second-class stamps, where the price is regulated by the terms of the USO.
The Royal Mail line is that “stamp prices of 85p for second-class and £1.65 for first-class remain well below the European average of £1.33 and £1.73 respectively” and that it considers prices “very carefully” in the face of declining letter volumes and the increasing costs associated with maintaining the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service to all 32million UK addresses, which involves a “complex and extensive network” involving post travelling on trucks, planes, ferries and drones before it reaches its final destination on foot.
Last December, Royal Mail estimated around 150million Christmas cards are delivered during the festive season, with a typical household sending 50 and receiving 17 – although it also says the average adult receives just two letters a week and spends under £7 a year on stamps.
The service reported a loss of £419m in 2023, and was fined £5.6m by industry watchdog Ofcom for missing delivery targets.
Ofcom announced in September that, following its The Future Of The Postal Service review launched early this year, it was proposing cutting second-class deliveries on Saturdays and possibly to only alternate days, with an uncapped and unregulated price for sending letters first class meaning Royal Mail would still meet its USO.
The plans have to be put to consultation before a final decision is made next summer, despite the watchdog launching a probe into RM’s ongoing failure to meet its quality-of-service obligations.
Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský and his EP Group have placed a total £5billion takeover bid for Royal Mail, which owner International Distribution Services (IDS) has accepted but the deal has yet to be ratified by shareholders and the government have called it in for investigation.
However, the Communications Workers’ Union has apparently told its 100,000 postie members it’s likely the government will clear the sale, anticipating ministers will reach an agreement to safeguard the 508-year-old company’s future in the hands of foreign owners for the first time, although the promises given by the would-be buyer are limited to five years at most.
CWU general secretary Dave Ward told the Daily Mail the union has been in talks with representatives of the man known as the Czech Sphinx and Royal Mail bosses and a crucial two-day meeting with the EP Group is due to take place next week.
IDS was due to publish half-year results yesterday, 21 November, and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is expected to face questions from MPs about the deal at a meeting of the House of Commons business select committee on Tuesday, 26 November.
