Europe Discount Airlines
It is hard to imagine life before the Internet and life before sites like Wikipedia. I shudder when I remember those dark, lonely days when you had to go to the library to gather information and when you had to consult a travel agent just to book a flight. I also am horrified to recall those long ago days when there were no discount airlines in Europe and the cost of flying was higher than the cost of a cup of coffee.
Thankfully, those days are long gone and now it is easier to book a ticket on cheap European Discount Airline than it is to boil a cup of water. One quick look on Wikipedia shows that there are no less than 62 discount airlines in Europe these days. The complete list is pasted below.
• Aer Lingus operate many routes to and from the Republic of Ireland. Fares as low as €1 on certain routes mean that flying to or via Ireland can be very cheap. (from €28 all inclusive, one-way.)
• Air Baltic have a wide variety of cheap fares from Riga, which can be used as a transit point. E.g. it is cheaper to travel Odessa-Riga-Kiev with airbaltic than Odessa-Kiev directly with regular-fare airlines. (from €14 all inclusive, one-way.)
• Blue 1 operate routes between northern Europe (Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden) and seven different cities in Finland.
• Blue Air operates six routes, as of 2005 September, between Bucharest and Barcelona, Maastricht, Lyon, Milan, Rome, and Madrid.
• BMI Baby, a subsidiary of bmi, have bases in Teeside, Cardiff, Manchester and Nottingham East Midlands. They operate domestic flights to Scotland and Northern Ireland, and also have a small number of flights out of Gatwick.
• Centralwings operates out of Poland (Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice) to several European destinations. It is a daughter airline of LOT Polish Airlines, the national operator, and generally makes use of LOT’s fleet, and thus is probably safer (eg. less likely to go bankrupt), but more expensive than others. Booking by Internet and phone, as well as through some travel agencies (additional fees apply).
• Condor operates out of major airports in Germany (doesn’t use obscure airfields) and sells tickets starting at 29,00 € one-way within Europe, putting it into the discount airline bracket as well. Offers free food and beverages catered by Lufthansa.
• Corendon operates out of Turkey to Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands
• FlyBe operates out of the UK to many European Destinations
• FlyGlobeSpan based in Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh) with cheap flights over Europe; a few cheap flights to Canada and as of 6/2/06 direct service between Sanford/Orlando Florida and Glasgow.
• FlyNordic operates from Stockholm to mostly Scandinavian places but also to Europe
• German Wings operate a large network out of German airports Berlin, Cologne-Bonn, Hamburg, and Stuttgart. (from €20 all inclusive, one-way, to all destinations.)
• Hapag-Lloyd Express operate a large network out of Stuttgart, Cologne/Bonn, Hanover, Hamburg and Berlin. (from €20 all inclusive, one-way.)
• Iceland Express operates out of London Stansted, Copenhagen & Frankfurt to Reykjavik.
• Lauda Air operates out of Austria to many European destinations.
• jet2 operate out of UK airports Belfast, Blackpool, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle to destinations throughout continental Europe. The airline has been given an award for 2006 by consumer review site, Review Centre, based on customer ratings of the airline.
• Maersk Air Maersk is now part of Sterling airlines with Scandinavian based routes and will redirect the weblink to their site.
• Meridiana operates out of Italy to many European & Italian destinations.
• Monarch operates out of several UK cities
• Niki operates out of Austria to many European destinations. Also gives away free beverages and food. Has an alliance with AirBerlin.
• Norwegian operates out of Norway.
• Onur Air operates a Turkish domestic network.
• Sky Europe operates out of Bratislava, Budapest, Krakow and Warsaw. Sales online, in some travel agencies and at airports. (from €14 all inclusive, one-way.)
• Smartwings operates out of Prague.
• Spanair operates throughout Spain and to a few other European destinations. Owned by SAS and a member of Star Alliance.
• Snowflake operates out of Copenhagen and Stockholm. Snowflake is the discount version of SAS.
• Sterling operate from Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Oslo, and Copenhagen. On the Scandinavian routes Sterling often compete with SAS by offering the same service at much lower prices, but not give air miles.
• Thomsonfly Operates from many UK airports to destinations across Europe and Northern Africa.
• Transavia (former BasiqAir), Operates out of Amsterdam to many European destinations.
• Vueling operates out of Barcelona (Spain) to many European destinations.
• Wizzair is a Hungarian airline which operates out of Poland and Hungary (fares are from €20 all inclusive, one-way.)
• Wind-Jet operates out of Italy to many European & Italian destinations.
