April 04, 2007
European Low-Fare Airlines
by Wendy Perrin
Question from reader LeslieGKoch:
"What Web sites can I use to book low-cost airlines in Europe? I need to fly among three capital cities, but Expedia et al. show only the national airlines, which are quite expensive."
Great question. Fortunately, I covered this in depth in my Perrin Report on European low-fare airlines. One thing to remember about these airlines: They sometimes use an alternative airport that is farther from the city center than the main airport. So, before buying your tickets, research public-transportation options and taxi costs from the airport that the plane flies into.
Photo courtesy of easyJet.com.
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From personal experience, I would watch out for Ryan Air flights to Frankfurt (Hahn). You'll land among trees and meadows a full 124 km from Frankfurt proper. There's a 12 Euro bus available, but especially late in the evening, after a long day of travel, the ride is not fun!
Posted by: TKyle | April 04, 2007 at 10:03 AM
A couple more resources that can be helpful:
An alternative to whichbudget.com for finding which routes LCCs fly is flycheapo.com. I'm not sure how accurate each one is, but I've always been happy using the latter.
Also, you can search rates and availability for a lot of LCCs at wegolo.com so you can skip the steps above.
Lastly, as mentioned in the comment above, there are generally buses from Ryanair's further locations into the cities. I took a bus from Girona into Barcelona and it wasn't bad. But if you have a lot of luggage or if you're time-constrained, it's a real pain.
Posted by: brettsnyder | April 04, 2007 at 11:10 AM