Get more bang for your buck abroad

By Jennifer Hill, Personal Finance Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - Passengers at Britain's two busiest airports face fare rises over the next five years following a heavily criticised new price-control regime, which came into force this month.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), announced earlier this year that it would allow airport operator BAA to impose rises in landing charges at Heathrow and Gatwick until March 2013.

Charges airlines have been paying at Heathrow over the last financial year are the equivalent of 10.36 pounds per passenger, but the CAA has allowed this figure to rise 23.5 percent in real terms to 12.80 pounds per passenger in 2008/09.

The increase at Gatwick will be 21 percent to 6.79 pounds per passenger.

Some of the increases are expected to be passed on to passengers in the form of higher ticket prices -- making it all the more important for consumers to get value for money when jetting off.

Price aggregators -- Web sites that search the market at the click of a mouse -- can prove invaluable for hunting down the cheapest flights.

Airline-network.co.uk, Cheapflights.co.uk and Flightsdirect.com give quotes from the world's leading airlines, while Kelkoo.co.uk and Lastminute.com also have travel channels.

When it comes to footing the bill, there are two simple options: cash or credit.