Finding cheap flights in Europe in 2011, 2012 & 2013 with sales from Charter Flight Centre, Arkefly, TUIfly, Thomson, Thomas Cook, Jetairfly and Monarch.
I’ve blathered on before about Europe’s low cost airlines, and how it sometimes pays to look beyond the well known ones such as Ryanair and Easyjet.
Well, one of the great budget traveller’s secrets is another tier of airlines that flies even further under the radar.
These are the airlines run by the big package holiday companies, and their primary purpose is to keep the profits in-house when getting their customers to the destination. Why outsource to another airline when you can use your own?
However, these airlines like to fill up spare seats by selling flight-only deals. And sometimes these can be absurdly cheap – especially when going from major North European hubs to popular holiday spots such as the Canary Isles, the Greek Islands and Turkey.
For getting to these places, and many others, it almost always works out cheaper to buy the legs of the journey separately – buy the ticket to the hub city from Australia with a major airline, then use the cheapo airline for the last leg.
Finding out who goes where – and even which of these airlines exist – is the hard part. These carriers very rarely show up on search and booking sites – they need to be looked for individually.
If using the UK as a base, then Charter Flight Centre is an excellent starting point. But it’s also worth looking at the likes of Thomson, Monarch, and Thomas Cook.
Then there are the ones on the European mainland. Arkefly in the Netherlands, Jetairfly in Belgium, Tuifly in Germany and TUIfly Nordic in Scandinavia can often have some ridiculous bargains.
While these airlines are competitive on European fares, where they really come into their own is in possible add-ons to a European adventure.
For flying to places on the cusp of Europe – the likes of Morocco, Egypt, Cyprus and Tunisia – it’s very rare that they’ll be beaten for price. And the same applies if you fancy somewhere even more exotic – by far the cheapest way to get to the Caribbean from Australia is to fly to the UK or Germany, then switch to Thomson, Thomas Cook or TUIfly.
Got any great tips for flying in Europe on a budget? Share your thoughts below.
