Five cent flights to the edge
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2007
1
22
Trip End
Sep 23, 2007
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Last year, I discovered Ryan Air low-cost flights. After three years of a fairly soporific existence, I was immediately smitten by the travel bug again. I had decided to use my last frequent flyer points for a return trip to London and was looking for connections to visit a brother in Austria. To my amazement I was able to buy a return ticket from London to Friedrichshafen, Germany, for the equivalent of five Australian cents from Ryan Air online. Friedrichshafen (which, interestingly, is also a Zeppelin airport) happens to be only a 20-minute drive from Hard, a small town on the Austrian side of Lake Constance where my brother has retired. A regular airfare would have cost me about $A700 and taken me to Zurich, two hours from where he lives.
No sooner had I returned to Australia and I started new travel plans for an extended, four-month European travel odyssey. My itinerary was fairly eclectic - mostly determined by long standing invitations from friends and relatives to visit and my own wishlist of ultimate travel destinations. Making London my base, I was able to book four five-cent return flights on Ryan Air, taking me to Limoge within easy reach of the Dordogne, France; Haugesund on the west coast of Norway; Friedrichshafen; and Alghero, on the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean.
Founded in 1985 by low cost airline pioneers Christy Ryan , Liam Lonergan and Tony Ryan, Ryan Air is based in Dublin, Ireland, and is now one of the world's biggest airlines in terms of passenger numbers and the most profitable despite its low fares. It flies to more than 400 destinations in Europe and North Africa and new destinations are added regularly. Its fares vary widely, according to distance, demand and availability - from the equivalent of five Australian cents to $A300 and more. The carrier frequently offers specials - sometimes even free flights. But to all this, add from ₤10.65 ($A25) to ₤25.20 in airport tax, fees and charges each way and ₤ 10 for every piece of check-in luggage plus ₤ 2 per flight to process credit card payments. But in most cases the costs still work out cheaper than regular airline tickets.
Apart from being cheap - or part of the reason why it is cheap - Ryan Air flies to small, out-of-the-way airports, opening up hundreds of opportunities to discover places off the beaten track, particularly in eastern Europe. Stansted, in Essex, north-east of London, is its operational base and where most Ryan Air flights take off. Stansted Express, a train which takes about an hour from London's Liverpool Street Station, leaves every 15 minutes and costs about ₤10 each way (if you buy online, otherwise, ₤15). Stansted's main advantage is that it is not Heathrow. At Heathrow, passengers need three hours to check in and go through security before take off (four hours for those who want time to do some duty-free shopping). At any of the Ryan Air airports one hour and a half is enough. Arriving at Stansted or any of the many Ryan Air destinations, passengers can be off the plane and on the train or in a hired car within 30 minutes.
But Ryan Air is also the world's most controversial airline - do not expect any great level of service. TripAdvisor has voted Ryan Air the most disliked airline in the world. Ryan Air flights should not be regarded as anything more than bus travel in the sky. It's strictly no frills and on a first in, first served basis where seating is concerned. Passengers have to pay for their food and drinks, even water. Travellers who turn up less than 40 minutes before take off will find the check-in counter closed, they will not be able to board and their tickets will not be refunded, so travel insurance is important. One of the pitfalls when ordering Ryan Air tickets online is the automatic addition of travel insurance to the cost. Those who already have travel insurance or plan travel insurance cover for their whole trip, should make sure they untick the insurance box. Many dislike Ryan Air's way of adding charges to the fare. Ryan Air passengers should also be prepared for advertisements in the on-board announcements and on the overhead luggage lockers and for offers of lottery tickets and scratch-its along with duty-free items. These are the add-ons which make Ryan Air such a profitable airline.
Travelling light is mandatory when flying Ryan Air and 15kg is the maximum weight allowed for check-in luggage before having to pay penalties at a hefty ₤5.50 a kg. Passengers are allowed one piece of cabin luggage which must not weigh more than 10kg. Those without check-in luggage are allowed priority check-in. Otherwise, priority check-in can be purchased at the airport for ₤2.50 per yellow post-in note which entitles the holder to board the plane ahead of everybody else.
But the planes leave mostly on time and the airline is a stickler for safety - I've seen them take an aircraft out of service because of safety concerns and reschedule with a new one within one hour, which compares very favourably with my previous experience when regular flights took from three hours up to 24 hours to reschedule.
I am not alone in catching the travel bug. More than ninety low fare carriers now operate across the European continent, competing fiercely on price and additional options such as extra legroom. Europeans who have never been on an airplane, let alone travelled anywhere before, are now into DIY travel, booking travel specials online and hopping on planes as easily as they would a train or bus to spend weekends in Prague or Lisbon. Subscribers to low cost airline websites are bombarded with regular travel deals to far flung places, often for less than a train fare to the closest local resort or main city.
Those who have specific periods in mind should start planning about three months ahead to take advantage of the low webfares, particularly in the peak season. In off-peak periods, cheap fares can easily be had a month in advance. But beware, there is often only one low cost flight a day available to many of the destinations and if hotel accommodation is needed between flights, it may work out cheaper to use one of the regular airlines which offers several flights a day. Competition has meant most mainstream carriers now also offer low fares to some of the more popular destinations. Also make sure to compare prices with other low-cost airlines such as EasyJet or Monarch, which advertise all inclusive fares.
