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European Budget AirlinesThere are more than 30 European budget airlines covering much of the major European cities. Europe has lagged U.S. developments in budget airline industry but has been catching on lately with more competition and more frequent flights. The early no-frills airlines, such as RyanAir, were based on experiences of such U.S. budget airlines as Southwest. What the European low cost airlines offer is low fares plus friendly and efficient service. These carriers can achieve savings by superb cost management, using less congested airports and no frills on the flight. European Budget Airlines - Operational CarriersThere are primarily two types of budget carriers in Europe: those that fly within certain country's borders, and those that fly between European countries (and some even to Northernmost Africa). Here are some of the operational carriers and the cities these carriers service. Aer Arann In the 1970's Aer Arann began flying from Galway to the Aran Islands, providing an island-hopping air service from the UK mainland to each of the three Islands. Now, much of it's traffic is feeder air service for Ireland and the UK. Aer Arann is one of the world's fastest growing regional airlines, with 625,000 annual passengers for 2003. Destinations: Birmingham, Bristol, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Edinburgh, Galway, Isle of Man, Kerry, Knock, Luton, Manchester, Prestwick, Sligo, Southampton, Waterford. Air Berlin The first Air Berlin flight started from Berlin-Tegel to Palma de Mallorca on 28th April 1979, Today, the airline has more than 160 connections per week (in summer). On average, the Air Berlin jets are less than two years old and thus comparably quiet and economical. Destinations: Agadir, Alicante, Almeria, Antalya, Arrecife, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Bodrum, Bremen, Catania, Chania, Bonn, Corfu, Dalaman, Djerba, Dortmund, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Erfurt, Faro, Frankfurt, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Hamburg, Hanover, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Jerez, Kos, La Palma, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Leipzig, London, Luxor, Madrid, Mahon, Malaga, Malta, Milan, Monastir, Muenster, Munich, North Rhine Westfalia, Nuremberg, Paderborn, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodos, Rome, Rostock, Samos, Sevilla, Sharm el Sheik, Stuttgart, Tenerife, Thessaloniki, Valencia, Vienna, Zurich. Air Luxor Light Air Luxor is a Portuguese Aviation Company incorporated on 14th December 1988. Air Luxor network includes today over 40 routes (all year-round and seasonal routes). Air Luxor Light offers the most affordable flight fares from the company. Destinations: Lisbon, Oporto, Paris, London, Madrid, Dublin, Funchal, Porto Santo Air Scotland Air-Scotland.com launched its services and started flying on the 29th of March 2003 in co-operation with Electra Airlines s.a., a Greek registered airline. Now, Air Holland has replaced Electra Airlines as the company's operating partner. Destinations: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Gerona, Malaga, Palma, Tenerife. Air Southwest Air Southwest is a regional airline dedicated to providing air services to and from Devon , Cornwall and Somerset in the UK. Destinations: London, Plymouth, Manchester, Jersey, Bristol, Newquay. Air Wales Air Wales was established in 1999. Initially based at Pembrey Airport in West Wales and operating one plane, Air Wales has expanded rapidly, and now employs over 100 personnel. Destinations: London, Newcastle, Liverpool, Cardiff, Swansea, Plymouth, Cork, Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels. AlpiEagles AlpiEagles, the Italian low cost carrier, was founded in 1979. Destinations: Olbia, Cagliari, Catania, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Venice, Verona, Athens, Barcelona, Chania, Heraklion, Mikonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Thessaloniki. Blue1 Blue1 is a low-cost Finnish based SAS Group airline that has been in operation since 1998. Destinations: Helsinki, Kittilä, Kuopio, Oulu, Rovaniemi, Tampere, Turku, Vaasa, Amsterdam, Berlin, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Athens, Barcelona, Dublin, London, Nice, Paris, Rome, Warsaw. bmi baby bmibaby is a budget airline subsidiary of bmi. Bmi is the UK’s second largest full service airline. Destinations: Belfast, Cardiff, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Teesside, Jersey, Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Brussels, Cork, Dublin, Faro, Geneva, Ibiza, Majorca, Malaga, Milan, Murcia, Nice, Palma, Paris, Pisa, Prague, Toulouse. CentralWings CentralWings is a central European low-cost carrier, part of the Polish LOT Group. Destinations: Bologna, Cologne, Dublin, Edinburgh, Gdansk, Grenoble/Lyon, Katowice, Krakow, Leeds Bradford, Lisbon, Lodz, London, Milan, Rome, Shannon, Warsaw, Wroclaw. EasyFly Bulgaria EasyFly is a Bulgarian budget airline that started operations in January 2006, with destinations throughout Europe. Destinations: Sofia, Alicante, Plovdiv, Berlin, Munich, Saarbrucken, easyJet easyJet is one of the Europe's leading low-cost airlines. Its first flight was in November 1995, and the company has since grown to one that offers over 120 routes. The growth of easyJet was boosted by its merger with Go-fly in August 2002. Destinations: Aberdeen, Alicante, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Belfast, Berlin, Bilbao, Bologna, Bristol, Copenhagen, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Faro, Geneva, Glasgow, Ibiza, Inverness, Liverpool, London Gatwick, London Luton, London Stansted, Lyon, Madrid, Malaga, Marseille, Milan, Munich, Naples, Newcastle, Nice, Palma, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly, Prague, Rome, Toulouse, Venice, Zurich. Evolavia Evolavia is an Italian low cost airline, which started operations in 2002. Destinations: Moscow, Paris, Ancona, Palermo, Alghero, Barcelona, Cagliari, Alghero. Excel Airways Excel Airways is one of the UK's major charter passenger airlines and provides mainly short-haul services to European and Middle Eastern leisure destinations, from it's three bases of London Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow. Destinations: Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Alicante, Almeria, Antalya, Arrecife, Athens, Bastia, Bodrum, Chania, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Geneva, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Lisbon, Mahon, Malaga, Malta, Mykonos, Naples, Olbia, Palma, Paphos, Preveza, Rhodes, Salonika, Samos, Santorini. Sharm el Sheik, Skiathos, Tenerife, Zante. flybe FlyBE is the UK’s third largest low fares airline. Destinations: Aberdeen, Alicante, Belfast, Bergerac, Birmingham, Bordeaux, Bristol, Chambery, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, Exeter, Geneva, Glasgow, Guernsey, Ibiza, Isle of Man, Jersey, La Rochelle, Leeds, Limoges, London, Lyon, Malaga, Milan, Murcia, Newcastle, Paris, Perpignan, Prague, Salzburg, Shannon, Southampton, Toulouse. Fly Globespan Globespan Group plc started Fly Globespan, the company's no frills airline, on 7th of November, 2002. Destinations: Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Malaga, Nice, Palma, Prague, Rome, Tenerife, Venice. Germania Express A German low cost carrier. Destinations: Alicante, Athen, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Istanbul, Lissabon, Moscow, Munchen, Palma de Mallorca, Rome, Stockholm, Saloniki, Tiflis, Wien, Zurich. German Wings Germanwings GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eurowings Luftverkehr AG, flying to over 20 destinations in Europe. Destinations: Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Bologna, Budabest, Cologne, Dresden, Dublin, Edinburgh, Faro, Helsinki, Ibiza, Istanbul, Izmir, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Malaga, Milan, Munich, Nice, Oslo, Palma, Paris, Prague, Rome, Stockholm Stuttgart, Thessaloniki, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, Zurich. Hapag Lloyd Express Hapag-Lloyd Express is the wholly-owned subsidiary of TUI AG, the world's largest travel and tourism enterprise. The airline has its headquarters at Hanover airport and went into business on 3 December 2002. Destinations: Berlin, Bilbao, Catania, Hamburg, Hanover, Klagenfurt, Cologne, Madrid, Milan, Manchester, Marseille, Naples, Nice, Olbia, Palermo, Pisa, Reus, Rome, Seville, Stuttgart, Valencia, Venice. Helvetic Helvetic is a Swiss budget airline with headquarters in Zurich. Destinations: Alicante, Brussels, Malaga, Marseille, Naples, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Prague, Rome, Valencia, Venice, Vienna, Zurich. Iceland Express Iceland Express ehf. organises and manages daily scheduled flights between Iceland, Denmark and the UK. Flight operations are handled for Iceland Express by Astraeus, a British air carrier operator. Destinations: Reykjavik, London, Copenhagen. InterSky InterSky began operations on 25 March, 2002. The Swiss based carrier serves destinations mainly in neighboring countries. Destinations: Berlin, Berne, Cologne, Elba, Friedrichshafen, Munich, Vienna. Jet 2 Jet 2 is a British low cost carrier. Destinations: Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast, Faro, Geneva, Malaga, Murcia, Nice, Palma, Prague, Venice. Loco Flights Loco Flights is a no frills airline based in Manchester, flying mainly to popular Mediterranean destinations. Destinations: Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Tenerife, Arrecife, Alicante, Malaga, Athens, Dublin. Malmö Aviation Malmo Aviation is a Malmo, Sweden, based budget airline that previously operated under the name Snalskjutsen. Destinations: Brussels, Gothenburg, Malmo, Nice, Stockholm, Umea. Meridiana An Italian low cost carrier. Destinations: London, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Turin, Milan, Venice, Verona, Pisa, Florence, Napoli, Palermo, catania, Cagliari, Olbia. Monarch In operation since 1967, the British Monarch Airlines now carries millions of passangers each year. Destinations: Alicante, Barcelona, Birmingham, Faro, Gibraltar, London, Malaga, Manchester, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife. MyTravel Lite MyTravel Lite is the new low fares airline from the MyTravel Group, the UK's largest travel company. Destinations: Alicante, Almeria, Barcelona, Belfast, Birmingham, Dublin, Faro, Knock, Malaga, Manchester, Murcia, Palma, Tenerife. Norwegian Norwegian Air Shuttle AS is a privately-owned low cost airline. In September 2002 Norwegian launched a programme of low-cost domestic flights between Oslo and Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim and Tromso, and from 5 April 2002 they operate low-cost flights to destinations in Spain and Portugal. The network of flights keeps on extending. Destinations: Oslo, Pisa, Prague, London, Longyerarbyen, Sardinia, Stavanger, Stockholm, Tromso, Trondheim, Alesund, Nice, Alicante, Molde, Malaga, Kirkenes, Grenoble, Faro, Harstad-Narvik, Dubrovnik, Bodo, Budabest, Berlin, Bergen, Banak, Andenes, Alta. Niki Niki is a budget airline owned by the former Formula One driver Niki Lauda. Destinations: London, Manchester, Southampton, Agadir, Alicante, Almeria, Amsterdam, Antalya, Araxos, Arrecife, Athens, Barcelona, Basel, Berlin, Bilbao, Bournemouth, Bremen, Brindisi, Budapest, Cagliari, Cairo, Calvi, Catania, Chania, Cologne, Corfu, Dalaman, Djerba, Dortmund, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Erfurt, Faro, Frankfurt, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Glasgow, Graz, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Jerez, Kalamata, Karlsruhe, Kos, La Palma, Lamezia, Las Palmas, Leipzig, Linz, Lisbon, Luxor, Madrid, Mahon, Malaga, Malta, Milan, Monastir, Munich, Murcia, Mykonos, Munster, Naples, Nuremberg, Olbia, Oporta, Paderborn, Palma de Majorca, Paris, Preveza, Reus, Rhodos, Rome, Rostock, Saarbrucken, Salzburg, Samos, Santiago de Compostela, Santorini, Sevilla, Sharm el Sheik, Stuttgart, Tenerife, Thessaloniki, Turin, Valencia, Vienna, Warsaw, Zakynthos, Zurich. Planet Air A UK based low cost airline. Destinations: Leeds, Lanzarote, Malta, Tenerife. RyanAir RyanAir, perhaps the best known European low cost carrier, started operations in 1985. In the past ten years, RyanAir has increased the number of yearly passangers from under 700,000 to over 15 million passangers per year. Destinations: Graz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg, Brussels, Brugge, Aarhus, Esbjerg, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bristol, Bournemouth, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Newquay, Teesside, Bergerac, Biarritz, Brest, Carcassonne, Clermont, Dinard, La Rochelle, Limoges, Montpellier, Nimes, Paris, Pau, Perpignan, Poitiers, Reims, Rodez, St.Etienne, Tours, Disneyland, Tampere, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Friedrichshafen, Eindhoven, Groningen, Maastrich, Cork, Derry, Dublin, Kerry, Knock, Shannon, Alghero, Ancona, Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Palermo, Pescara, Pisa, Rome, Trieste, Turin, Venice, Verona, Barcelona, Jerez, Malaga, Murcia, Reus, Valladolid, Faro, Haugesund, Oslo, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Gothenburgh, Malmo, Stockholm, Cardiff. ScandJet ScandJet is a Scandinavian budget airline operating out of Sweden. Destinations: Gothenburg, Malmo, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik, Oslo, Stockholm. Sky Europe SkyEurope Airlines is a low cost carrier headquatered in Bratislava, Slovakia, where it operates from Bratislava Airport. The airline started operations on 13 February 2002. Destinations: London, Berlin, Prague, Stuttgart, Zurich, Milan, Venice, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik, Bratislava, Budapest, Kosice, Paris. Smart Wings Smart Wings, based in Czech Republic, is the brand for low-cost scheduled flights of Travel Service Airlines. Destinations: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Gran Canary, Heraklion, Larnaca, Madrid, Milan, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Prague, Rome, Venice. SN Brussels Airlines SN Brussels Airlines, founded in 2002, is a Belgian full service airline with flights within Europe and to Africa. They also offer a comprehensive destination list with their codeshare partners to Asia and North America. Destinations: Aarhus, Barcelona, Basel, Berlin, Bilbao, Billund, Birmingham, Budapest, Bucharest, Bologna, Bristol, Brussels, Firenze, Frankfurt, Geneva, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Helsinki, Ýstanbul, Kiev, Copenhagen, Larnaca, Lisbon, London, Lyon, Madrid, Nice, Malta, Manchester, Marseille, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Naples, Newcastle, Oslo, Paris, Porto, Prague, Rome, Seville, Sofia, Split, Saint Petersburg, Stockholm, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Turin, Venice, Vilnius, Warsaw, Vienna, Zagreb, Zürich, Abidjan, Banjul, Casablanca, Conakry, Dakar, Douala, Entebbe, Freetown, Kigali, Kinshasa (N'Djili), Luanda, Monrovia, Nairobi, Yaoundé. Sky Europe SkyEurope is one of the leading Central European low-cost airlines and has bases in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Destinations: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Basel, Birmingham, Bologna, Bourgas, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Cologne, Copenhagen, Debrecen, Dublin, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Gliwice, Innsbruck, Katowice, Kosice, Krakow, London, Manchester, Milan, Naples, Nice, Nyireqyhaza, Paris, Poprad, Poznan, Rome, Salzburg, Sofia, Split, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Torino, Varna, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, Zadar. Snowflake Snowflake is a budget airline operated by SAS. Destinations: Alicante, Ankara, Athens, Barcelona, Beirut, Belgrade, Bologna, Budabest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Inverness, Istanbul, Lisbon, Lyon, Malaga, Malta, Nice, Palma Mallorca, Prague, Pristina, Rome, Sarajevo, Skopje, Split, Stockholm, Venice. Sterling Based in Scandinavia, Sterling runs a commercial airline in the European market; both low-fare air services and charter services. Destinations: Algarve, Alicante, Amsterdam, Athen, Barcelona, Berlin, Bologna, Bordeaux, Budapest, Cairo,Crete, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Geneva, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Malaga, Majorca, Montpellier, Munich, Nice, Paris, Praque, Rhodos, Rome, Salzburg, Samos, Tallinn, Tenerife, Venice, Copenhagen, Billund, Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg. Thomsonfly Thomsonfly is a trading name of Britannia Airways Limited. Britannia is part of TUI, the largest travel and tourism business in the world (as is Hapag Lloyd Express). Destinations: Coventry, Ibiza, Jersey, Malaga, Marseille, Naples, Nice, Palma, Pisa, Rome, Valencia, Venice. Transavia - Basiq Air Transavia is a low-cost airline that integrated operations with Basiq Air in January 2005. Destinations: Amsterdam, Alicante, Barcelona, Berlin, Bordeaux, Copenhagen, Dublin, Faro, Gerona, London, Madrid, Malaga, Marseille, Milan, Naples, Nice, Oslo, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Seville, Stockholm, Venice, Verona. Virgin Express Virgin Express is one of famous UK entrepreneur Richard Branson's companies, offering low fare flights. Destinations: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Brussels, Copenhagen, Faro, Geneva, Gothenburg, Landvetter, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Malaga, Milan, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Rome, Stockholm. Vueling Vueling is a budget airline based in Barcelona, Spain. Destinations: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bilbao, Brussels, Ibiza, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga, Milan, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Rome, Seville, Valencia. Wizzair Wizz Air is the largest CEE based low-cost airline. The company started operations on 19th May 2004. Destinations: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Bourgas, Brussels, Budapest, Cologne, Corfu, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Gdansk, Glasgow, Hamburg, Herakleion, Katowice, Kaunas, Liverpool, Ljubjana, London, Malmö, Milan, Palma de Mallorca, Paris, Poznan, Rhodes, Rome, Sofia, Split, Stockholm, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Zagreb. |