Travel Q & A

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European Discount Airlines:
Who are they, What are they and
Where do they fly?

A lot of non-europeans are unfamiliar with the discount European airlines. Our family found them to be an easy and inexpensive alternative to the train and the big name carriers. Buyer Beware however, a number of the bigger budget airlines start with low teaser rates but a number of fees and surcharges will add right up including change fees, overweight baggage etc. So make sure you are certain of all your travel information and dates before you book, read all the fine print about luggage allowance, be sure to locate that more obscure airport they are most likely flying in and out of, and pack or buy a lunch because it is unlikely any will be provided. That said, we did not have any difficulty flying with these carriers. Our flights were timely and the staff members were friendly and professional. We were able to make all of our reservations on-line. Most of the websites provide a route/destination map in order to determine what locations they serve.

Air Berlin

Air Berlin is probably the closest thing to a regular carrier with snacks and drinks provided. They cover most of Europe and parts of Northern Africa. Their website is easy to navigate with a great map showing all the different routes and connections they offer. They now offer very competitive flights from Europe into North America including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, various locations in Mid to Southern California, Arizona, up and down the East Coast and the Caribbean.

BMIbaby

This airline operates out of Great Britain with flights mostly to southern Europe, Spain in particular and Amsterdam.

Brussels Airlines

The website is difficult to navigate for this Belgian airline. It flies mainly between Brussels and various European airports.

Centralwings

This airline operates out of Poland. If Poland is part of your travel itinerary this carrier will take you from cities in Poland to various European destinations. The web site did not have a route map.

Condor

Condor Airline flies to numerous destinations in Europe and now a few destinations in North America including Vancouver, British Columbia and Las Vegas, Nevada. Most flights originate in Germany. The website was a little cumbersome to use.

Corendon.com

This small air carrier operates out of Turkey. It flies specifically from Turkish locations to the Netherlands, Belgium and Morocco.

Easyjet

Easyjet is one of the larger carriers with a large number of routes throughout Europe. They also have many add-on fees so read the fine print carefully. Their website is easy to use with a great route map depicting all the flight options.

Euroflyusa

This is a discount carrier offering flights from various locations in Italy to New York from April to November.

FlyBE

FlyBE is another British origin airline with flights from Great Britain heading to Central Europe as far east as Dubrovnik and as far north as Hamburg. The website includes a route map.

Flyglobespan

Flyglobespan originates out of Great Britain with flights to many holiday destinations in the Mediterranean along with flights to Vancouver and Toronto in Canada.

Germania Express

This small airline flies from Germany to a few locations like Tel Aviv, Serbia, French and Greek Isles.

Germanwings

Germanwings has great coverage of Europe with its many flights except for the Scandinavian countries. Their website includes a route map.

Helvetic.com

Helvetic.com is based out of Switzerland with flights from Zurich to many Mediterranean coastal cities and a few in Eastern Europe.

Iceland Express

As you might guess this airline has flights between Iceland and other major cities in Europe, but not between mainland European cities.

Jet2

This British airline has flights as far east as Krakow, and flights between the British Isles and mediterranean coastal cities.

Monarch

Yet another British discount airline with flights primarily between the coastal cities of Spain and Portugal and a flight to Cyprus as well.

Myair.com

Myair.com originates out of Italy. The flights generally target other Italan cities and Southern Europe, but there are flights to Paris, Brussel, Amsterdam, Bucharest and Morocco as well.

Norewegian

This airline has anumber of interscandinavian flights as well as flights around western Europe, Warsaw and Morocco. Children under 15 receive a discounted fare.

Ryanair

This is one of the larger European discount airlines. They have an extensive list of flight options around Europe. Their web site is reminiscent of a slot machine but otherwise easy enough to navigate. They have very low inital rates but the many extra fees add up.

SkyEurope

SkyEurope is one of the larger discount airlines with Vienna as one of its major hubs. The website can be translated easily into English but the route map remained in the slavic language. Still it is fairly simple to puzzle out the various city names. SkyEurope has very low fares but watch for fees. We had inadvertently reserved a ticket for a relative with the wrong last name. The change fee at that time was 60 Euros. If an individual has luggage over 22 kilos there is a surcharge regardless if other members of the family have no luggage at all. Bring your own snack. Nonetheless, the staff members were all very pleasant and well trained. The flight was timely and uneventful.

Transavia.com

Most flights with Transavia originate out of the Netherlands with the exception of Paris. They are largely to central to southern European destinations and North Africa. There are no flights to Great Britain or Scandinavia outside of Copenhagen.

Volareweb

This airline is based in Italy with mostly domestic flights, Paris and Poland. Our family booked a very inexpensive flight from Milan to one of Paris' outlying airports. The cab fare was more than the flight -- next time we will take the bus. The website is easy to navigate and again the staff members we interacted with were all very professional. The flight was timely and uneventful.

Vueling

Based out of Spain, this airline offers flights between major European cities and holiday destinations in Spain.

Wizz Air

This airline offers a number of flights running in the East to West direction from Eastern Europe to Western Europe including some scandinavian cities.

More to Come

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