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.
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