Ryanair and Easy Jet tell us that their average (single) fare is £30-40. When you fly with them they add at least £10-15 per leg for taxes and charges. You also pay a credit card fee which may be £3 per booking. That looks like £83-118 return. And for that, there’s no ticket, a re-usable boarding card, no in-flight catering, no newspapers, no hot towels, no drinks. And no travel agent’s commission.
Now have a look at some of the off-peak, short-notice prices from the charter airlines. I confidently expect you’ll find prices in the £89-119 range. OK, still no meal (probably), but it does call into question the actual costs of operating aircraft, and ticket prices. For example, I was quoted £800+ for a weekend in Paris (flight only) from Bristol with Air France last year. (I didn’t go).
Comments?
By: Pablo - 25th August 2004 at 10:38
Surely what locos have done is clarify pricing structures, particularly for one-way flights. For example, I booked a return flight with BA (LHR-MAN-LHR) a few weeks ago. The total cost was £64. Just out of interest I checked the price of a one-way flight. A one-way flight LHR-MAN on BA in November was coming in at over £190. Where’s the logic in charging over three times for a one-way flight than a return, if the passenger only wishes to fly one-way?
By: Bmused55 - 25th August 2004 at 07:53
LOL!!! September 27th I need to do a day trip to Paris…
EMA-CDG-EMA on bmiBaby £132.88 all-in 😮
BHX-CDG-BHX on Air France £151.80 all-in 🙂Parking is cheaper at BHX, reducing the difference.
I know which airline I’m going to fly with, and it doesn’t use WW as its flight code!!! 😀
Traitor, LOL :p
By: Skymonster - 24th August 2004 at 15:41
LOL!!! September 27th I need to do a day trip to Paris…
EMA-CDG-EMA on bmiBaby £132.88 all-in 😮
BHX-CDG-BHX on Air France £151.80 all-in 🙂
Parking is cheaper at BHX, reducing the difference.
I know which airline I’m going to fly with, and it doesn’t use WW as its flight code!!! 😀
By: wysiwyg - 22nd August 2004 at 22:17
I recently booked a friend on BA, TLS to LGW in economy, LGW to TLS in business. Including a £10 phone booking supplement and a £25 overseas ticketing charge and all taxes, total cost £160.
The nearest flight timings on EZY would have cost a little over £700.
err…that would be me then! 😀
By: bmi-star - 22nd August 2004 at 22:10
Thanks to easyJet, Ryanair, SkyEurope, Monarch Scheduled, Germanwings, Go, flybe. etc I’ve been on around 40 round trips in the last two and half years. These are almost certainly trips I would not have made if the prices hadn’t been so low
Hear Hear Dusseldwarf.
If it wasnt for locos, i wouldn’t have been able to fly all those trips this year to CGN,GCI,GVA,BFS etc
Maybe mate, all the loco seats to EDI have been sold, cos i am going on a half term period, and thats why they are so dear.
I love locos, cheep, sometimes cheerful eg Germanwings :D, and handy, in my case EZY with LPL.
By: Duesseldwarf - 22nd August 2004 at 21:48
Was looking up some fares for a trip to EDI in October, and i found that the Locos were dearer than bmi, so going with bmi again!
I see the reason for this being that the lo-co’s have already sold their decent percentage of cheapest seats on their flights because most people check them out first when booking flights. They are reknowned for the cheap fares and therefore, it makes sense if their flights fill up before the traditional airlines on the same routes even if the trad airlines are cheaper on some dates. Also, if these lo-co’s weren’t any good (not that you said that bmi-star), then BA, bmi and the likes wouldn’t have ever felt the need to create their own lo-cost airlines in the first place and also they wouldn’t have had to reduce the prices on the mainline airlines so dramatically.
By: Duesseldwarf - 22nd August 2004 at 21:40
See my signature – I’ve booked 5 return flights with easyJet in the last month for November and December this year. Including the credit card fee (which only applies once per booking and not per passenger or per sector), I paid the following.
LTN/EDI/LTN 06/11/04 daytrip £40.98 all in
LTN/WAW/LTN 13/11/04 daytrip £42.31 all in
LTN/MAD/LTN 20/11/04 daytrip £42.31 all in
LTN/NCE/LTN 27/11/04 daytrip £35.00 all in
LTN/EDI/LTN 24/12/04 – 28/12/04 £35.98 all in
I don’t think that you can argue that these are not cheap. Whether you like the airlines or not, thems cheap fares. Thanks to easyJet, Ryanair, SkyEurope, Monarch Scheduled, Germanwings, Go, flybe. etc I’ve been on around 40 round trips in the last two and half years. These are almost certainly trips I would not have made if the prices hadn’t been so low from my two local airports with these airlines. I know I am not alone, even on this forum, for taking advantage of these fares on these airlines. One never knows when one may not be able to travel due to financial constraints or illness, so I for one am very glad that I can get around Europe whilst I can for relatively little money. But, it isn’t just me, I believe that there are even business travellers who are only allowed to travel on the lo-co’s nowadays because there is a clear saving to be had.
By: bmi-star - 22nd August 2004 at 20:50
Was looking up some fares for a trip to EDI in October, and i found that the Locos were dearer than bmi, so going with bmi again!
By: Silver Snapper - 22nd August 2004 at 19:26
On the subject of adding taxes to advertised fares, there were moves afoot in Westminster to oblige uk airlines to quote fares as all inclusive.
There still is…published airfares must include all known
charges..the internet evidently being a grey area 😡
There seems to be a constant batttle to enforce the legislation.
‘Free’ fares and fares from 1p etc have been largely criticised by both the Office of Fair Trading and The Advertising Standards Agency.
It would be more effective if folk complained to their
local trading standards departments.
They have the ‘teeth’, thanks to current legislation. They
need the ammunition, get complaining.. :rolleyes:
By: OneLeft - 22nd August 2004 at 18:46
A lot of the costs that you pay for aren’t directly connected with the actual operation of the aircraft. Older, more established airlines, like the nationals, generally have higher costs which are often a lagacy from the days when airlines didn’t worry too much as Joe Public would pay whatever he were asked to.
Some airlines like BA have been able to reduce fares as a response to the loco’s by drastically reducing their costs. For example, fewer crew and less catering.
On the subject of adding taxes to advertised fares, there were moves afoot in Westminster to oblige uk airlines to quote fares as all inclusive. Ryanair are as ever immune as they are a Stansted based Irish airline, so the other loco’s wormed out of it claiming that Ryanair had an unfair advantage.
The only airlines that adopted advertising all fares fully inclusive were BA, BD and VS.
So are the loco’s cheaper? Not always.
Last Christmas I checked out fares LON to GLA return.
FR £185, EZY £169, BA £84, BD £84.
I recently booked a friend on BA, TLS to LGW in economy, LGW to TLS in business. Including a £10 phone booking supplement and a £25 overseas ticketing charge and all taxes, total cost £160.
The nearest flight timings on EZY would have cost a little over £700.
The moral of the story is shop around, look at every option, remember which carriers are being upfront, and don’t believe the loco hype.
1L.
By: Silver Snapper - 22nd August 2004 at 18:22
Ryanair and Easy Jet tell us that their average (single) fare is £30-40.
The fares are cheap if you book early from ‘thick’ route
airports. Book late and book from ‘thin’ route airports
and there appears to be little difference from the fares
charged by regular airlines.
I normally fly lo-co from EDI-STN but EDI-LHR/LGW is
often cheaper if I book late… 😉
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August 22, 2004 at 6:13 pm