As enjoyable and efficient
as Europe train travel is, you should now consider connecting
distant cities within Europe on your trip with economy flights.
In the last few years, cheap fares between European cities
are now available for as low as $15-50. To cover long distances
when necessary, rather than enduring a 12-16 hour train (or
bus) ride, save time with a 2 hour low fare airlines flight.
You've heard about Ryanair
and their famous £1 fares - now many new discount airline
competitors have entered this market and are spreading rapidly
to all corners of Europe. While most of them can't match Ryanair,
they are still worth a look for cheap flights within Europe.
First, before searching individual
discount airlines, you may want to try a search from the consolidator
OpenJet because it searches several of the discount airlines
at once. You can do a search directly from the right of this
page.
If you want to look at individual
discount airlines by country of origin and/or destination,
OSiE maintains this list of low-cost airlines in Europe. Besides
the two leaders, Ryanair and easyJet, your best chance of
finding true discount fares ($20-$50 one-way) are with Air
Berlin, flybe, Germanwings, Hapag-Lloyd Express, SkyEurope,
Smart Wings, and Wizz Air. Also, try EuropeTracker QuikConnect
for the latest database of discount flights within Europe.
