Cheap air travel is a reality

There are certainly some advantages to living in Europe – lots of nearby countries to visit and cheap flights. This is a whole new way to spending the weekend quite foreign to Australians.

Everything is so close – 2 hour from Spain to Britain, 2 hours from Germany to Italy. But the real surprise is the price. There are a few airlines that really take price wars to the maximum. We thought we were very lucky to find some tickets from Barcelona for 30 euros each and then from Granada to London for 15 euros each one way. We even bought a seat for the guitar because it was cheaper than paying excess luggage for it. Lily bought a ticket a week later with the same airline and paid 1 cent!! It seemed incredible. Unfortunately they don't fly to every airport and if it is not a popular travel time the prices are higher.

In some towns they use outlying airports if the runways or late night flights cost less, and there are airport taxes of course. Big penalities apply for changing flights etc. They cover a few costs by charging 6 euros for each item of luggage and manage to get a bit more back by lowering the luggage allowance. From Australia the allowance is 20 kgs/person but if you fly with Ryan Air - one of the main cheap airlines - it is only 15 kgs. And they charge 8 euros for every kilo overweight. This of course means everyone carries a lot more in their hand luggage and wears all their heaviest clothes

We saw them weigh some people’s hand luggage but luckily they didn’t weigh ours. (They would have made a fair bit of money).

The other price saving strategies they use are that the flight a strictly No Frills – that includes no food or drink provided - we saw quite a few passengers bring out their own packed lunch and cans of beer or soft drink. There are no seat allocations so you can sit wherever you like, the seats don't recline and they sell raffles tickets during the flight to win free travel!

All this still seems amazing that they are able to operate an airline with full staff and to safety regulations, where only a small percentage of the seats are sold at full price and the other tickets are sold progressively cheaper and cheaper.

It doesn’t stop with the airfares - some agencies can arrange package tours where the flight may only cost a few euros or pounds and hotels accommodation for a couple of pounds each per night. We have yet to explore this option. I have heard of a buck’s party going to Latvia for the weekend from Britain.

Air travel is a much harder, longer and more expensive option for Australians.