Here is a quick overview.
This is of course the reason you choose to fly a low cost airline – to save money. Everything the airline does is geared towards keeping costs down in order to be able to offer cheaper tickets and travel for customers.
Flights are operated point to point between major European cities and you are not routed through an airline hub airport.
Few discount airlines take any responsibility for consequences of delayed or cancelled flights. If your flight is delayed causing you to miss an onwards flight, you are on your own.
Most discount airlines don't serve free food on board. You have to bring food and drinks with you onboard or buy whatever you need during the flight.
Some budget airlines fly between smaller airports where the landing fees are lower than at the major airports. These airports may be harder to get to and farther away from main cities. Many major airports are now lowering their landing fees attracting new routes operated by low-cost airlines.
Many European discount airlines only allow reservations to be made on the Web and for most airlines the lowest airfare tickets can only be purchased on their Website.
Many low cost airlines sell seats at a range of prices for the same flight. The seats sold first are the ones sold at the lowest price. As the flight fill up and the day of departure approaches, you have to pay more for a seat. To get the best price you often have to book several weeks or even months ahead of when you want to travel. Buying a last-minute ticket on a budget airline can be almost as expensive as flying with a full cost airline.
Airplanes operated by discount airlines in Europe are not divided into classes. All seats have the same standard and all passengers receive the same service no matter how much they paid for their ticket. The price you pay for your travel ticket usually depend only on when you book and how many free seats there are when you make your reservation.
Most low cost airlines does not issue paper tickets. To check in on the day of departure you bring with you a reference number that was issued when you booked the ticket as well as your passport or other identification documents accepted by the airline. Based on this you are checked in and receive a boarding card.
Europe has a number of budget airlines offering low cost air travel to the price conscious holiday and business traveller. European discount airlines are rapidly expanding their route networks and most European countries are now served both domestically and internationally by budget airlines.
Below is a list of low-cost airlines operating cheap flights in Europe. Please check each airlines website for schedules and prices.
Air-Berlin bmibaby.com Centralwings Easyjet FlyBE Germania Express Germanwings Hapag-Lloyd Express Iceland Express Fly Nordic Norwegian Ryanair SkyEurope Airlins Smart Wings Sterling Transavia.com Thomsonfly Virgin Express Vueling.com
Air-Berlin is a German based low cost airline operating a large number of cheap European flights. Countries served by Air-Berlin include Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Canary Islands, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, England (London) and Switzerland.
bmibaby.com fly budget priced flights between airports in England and European destinations like Prague, Paris, Nice, Tolouse, Bordeaux, Milan, Faro, Cork, Dublin, Alicante, Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga, Murcia, Palma, Geneva, Amsterdam and Belfast. bmibaby.com also serve Edinburgh, Glasgow and Jersey. bimbaby.com operates out of the following English airports: East Midlands, Teesside, Gatwick, Cardiff and Manchester. bmibaby is a subsidiary of British Midland Airways.
Centralwings is a new discount airline based in Poland that will start flying February 1st 2005. Flights are operated between Poland and western and southern Europe with some routes only starting later in the spring or this summer. Polish destinations served by this new budget airline are Warsaw, Katowice and Krakow. German and Czech destinations are Hannover, Cologne/Bonn, Nuremberg and Prague and in the UK Centralwings fly into London Gatwick airport. Southern Europe destinations are Lisbon, Gerona/Barcelona, Bologna, Rome, Catania and Malta.
Easyjet has been offering budget airfares on European flights since 1995. As of early 2004 they operate over 145 routes in Europe including destinations such as London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Zurich, Budapest, Lyon, Nice, Milan, Venice, Rome, Ljubljana, Athens, Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante, Malaga, Palma, Ibiza and Faro. Easyjet is one of the major European discount airlines.
FlyBE
is a UK discount airline operating cheap flights within
the United Kingdom and between the UK and Ireland, France, Spain and
Austria. European destinations for FlyBE include Prague, Salzburg,
Toulouse, La Rochelle, Perpignan, Alicante, Malaga and Faro. On the
British isles FlyBE flights are available from Belfast, Dublin,
Shannon, Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Guernsey,
Jersey and London Gatwick airports.
Germania Express operates low cost air flights between Germany, Switzerland and Austria and southern Europe. They also fly to Stockholm, Moscow and Tiblis. This European Discount Airline fly from German cities like Hamburg, Bremen, Hanover, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich. Destinations in southern Europe include Alicante, Ibiza, Majorca, Rome, Rimini, Naples, Skopje, Thessaloniki, Athens and Istanbul. Germania Express offer tickets at a fixed low price independent on when you book your flight.
Germanwings operates two main hubs in Cologne/Bonn and Stuttgart. From there low cost air routes fan out all over Europe including northern European destinations like Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki. In the UK and Ireland Germanwings offer low priced flights to Dublin, Edinburgh, Birmingham and London. In Southern Europe Germanwings fly to Spain and Portugal with destinations like Lisbon, Malaga, Madrid, Barcelona, Palma and Ibiza; France with Paris and Nice; Italy with Milan, Verona, Bologna and Rome; Greece and Turkey with Athens, Tessaloniki, Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Eastern and Central European destinations for Germnawings include Berlin, Dresden, Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Krakow, Zurich and Moscow.
Hapag-Lloyd Express is a German low cost airline operating out of three main airports in Germany serving 20 destinations in seven European countries. The main hubs of Hapag-Lloyd Express are Hanover, Cologne/Bonn and Stuttgart airports. From there the airline fly bargain priced flights into Italian destinations Bari, Milan, Naples, Olbia, Palermo, Pisa and Venice. Destinations in Spain, France and Switzerland are Bilbao, Mallorca, Seville, Valencia, Marseille and Geneva. In Germany low cost flights is offered for routes into Berlin, Hamburg, and Klagenfurt. From the summer 2004 season Hapag-Lloyd Express will open additional air routes for travel between Germany and England and Ireland.
Iceland Express operates low cost flights to and from the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik. Flights are operated every day to London Stansted airport, Copenhagen and Frankfurt. During the summer season some of the routes are flown twice per day.
Fly Nordic is a low cost airline operating flights between Stockholm and the Nordic cities of Oslo, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Umeå and Luleå. Nordic Airlink use Stockholm as their hub city from where they operate flights to other Swedish cities and the Norwegian and Danish captials.
Norwegian operates a number of low cost domestic Norwegian routes as well as flights between Norway and other European countries. European destinations served include London, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Dubrovnik, Pisa, Sardinia, Nice, Grenoble, Murcia, Malaga and Faro. Norwegian domestic destinations served by Norwegian are Oslo, Ålesund, Alta, Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim, Bodø, Harstad/Narvik, Molde and Tromsø.
Ryanair is based in Ireland has been offering cheap European flights since 1991. Today Ryanair operates 168 routes between 88 airports in 17 countries. Destinations in Northern Europe include Oslo, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, Tampare, Arhus and Esbjerg. In the UK and Ireland Ryanair serves cities like London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Dublin, Shannon and many more. Ryanair also serves destinations in Germany, including Berlin and Frankfurt as well as destinations in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland. In Southern Europe Ryanair focuses on Italy, France, Spain and Portugal with destinations for cheap flights including Milan, Rome, Pisa, Genoa, Paris, Montpellier, Barcelona, Murcia, Malaga and Faro.
SkyEurope Airlines is based at the airports at Budapest and Vienna-Bratislava and operates a network of low cost flights to 18 European destinations. The destinations served by SkyEurope include London, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Prague, Stuttgart, Paris, Zurich, Milan, Venice, Rome, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.
Smart Wings is a new low cost airline based in the Czech Republic offering cheap flights between Prague and these European cities: Copenhagen, Madrid, Amsterdam, Dublin, Paris, Zurich and Rome.
Sterling is based in Denmark and fly low cost air routes between the Scandinavian countries and southern Europe. Destinations in Scandinavia include Copenhagen, Stavanger, Bergen, Oslo, Gothenburg, Malmø and Stockholm. In Southern Europe Sterling fly cheap flights to Alicante, Barcelona, Crete, Gran Canaria, Kos, Madeira, Malaga, Milano, Nice, Palma de Mallorca and Rome.
Transavia.com use Amsterdam Schiphol and Amsterdam Rotterdam airports as their hub airports. From there they fly low cost flights to northern European destinations like Copenhagen. UK and Ireland destinations are London and Dublin and in Germany Transavia.com serves Berlin. Transavia.com also fly to a number of southern European destinations in Portugal, Spain, France and Italy including Faro, Malaga, Alicante, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, Madrid, Mallorca, Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux, Milan, Pisa, Seville and Venice.
Thomsonfly.com is a British low cost airline operating cheap flights from Coventry to southern Europe. Destinations served by Thomsonfly.com include Shannon, Cork, Jersey, Amsterdam, Cologne/Bonn, Lyon, Salzburg, Venice, Pisa, Naples, Valencia, Alicante, Ibiza, Palma and Malaga.
Virgin Express is a Brussels based discount airline flying routes to southern Europe, England, Holland, Denmark and Sweden. Destinations include London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Stockholm. In the south Virgin Express serve destinations like Lisbon, Faro, Malaga, Madrid, Barcelona, Palma, Brodeaux, Nice, Milan, Rome and Athens. Almost all flights operated by Vigrin Express go through Brussels.
Vueling.com is a Spanish low cost airline offering flights from Barcelona and Valencia to Amsterdam, Bilbao, Brussels, Ibiza, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga, Minorca, Milan, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Rome and Seville.