Budget Airlines Cost UK Families on Average £29 More per Seat than Non-Budget Carriers

Booking a family holiday on a shoestring? According to UK price comparison site Idealo.co.uk, shopping for bargain flights is not the simple experience it once was. Their latest research has found that families from the UK will spend on average £29 more per seat with a budget airline compared to booking a flight with a more established network carrier. 

Once all the hidden surcharges for baggage, seat reservations, priority boarding and administrative services were included to the total price based on the study’s travel conditions, a proper price comparison for families was possible. The six non-budget carriers in the study offered prices that were on average £87 less per booking than the budget airlines.

Of the routes studied, the budget airlines only resulted in the cheapest price for one: London - Alicante. From London to Berlin, British Airways and Lufthansa offered direct flights which were £51 cheaper per seat than the Ryanair and EasyJet. From London to Barcelona, British Airways offered a direct flight that was £47 less expensive per seat than EasyJet.

The prices from Ryanair and EasyJet were also the least transparent of the four low-cost carriers in the research. When comparing the cost per seat found on flight search engines with the ‘real cost’ per seat in our study, the ‘real cost’ was 92% more expensive for EasyJet and 166% more expensive for Ryanair.

When it comes to air travel, it pays to think differently. Why not try a wheeled garment cabin bag from Gate8.

GATE8 Press Team