Huge difference in cost between airports

parking_question_chap

Hiya

Can anybody explain why there is a massive gap in holiday prices to the USA between airports. What I would pay £1200pp for at Gatwick or Manchester can be found for £850pp at Heathrow or Birmingham.

duchy

It's not just between airports- it can be between airlines too.

And if you think that's bad try putting in starting in Dublin or Gothenburg rather than a UK airport

SW17

It's quite common due to competition (and airport charges) being different from each airport, though not so usual for LHR to be the cheapest...

richardw

It's different markets as well as SW17 mentions.

pompeyrich

Maybe no direct flights from Heathrow, I'm thinking Orlando here, which is obviously only 1 destination. As others have said many resons for price differences, just use them to your advantage, I used to search from many UK airports and was quite happy to drive to Birmingham to save £100p.p. on a flight as there were 5 of us travelling.

Although the convenience of a local airport is nice if the savings are as great as you say, £350p.p. between Gatwick and Heathrow, that would cover the hotel costs if 2 or more travelling.

Caz3121

depending where you are based it is also worth considering ex-EU. We are doing LAX in July...booked the journey starting and ending in Dublin (via London)...travelling Business class for less than economy would cost starting London (again this is marketing...indirect flights competing with direct flights...who is going to choose to pay the same or more for indirect, less convenient flights?)
my flights to/from Dublin were £35 plus a few Avios return
although the flights came out as £100 cheaper than economy from London, they were also £5,500 each cheaper than the exact same flights in business class originating in London excluding the Dublin legs...

paulfarrugia

Its mainly to do with airport charges.

Caz3121

paulfarrugia wrote: »

Its mainly to do with airport charges.

It is mainly to do with marketing
in my case the airport charges/taxes saving was around £130 (Ireland €12 v's UK at £142)
my actual saving by choosing to start journey in Dublin rather than London was over £5k...very little to do with airport charges

dawyldthing

I've just had a look for my Oz dates and there's over £300 difference from going from Dublin and from Manchester. That really is crazy

SW17

Caz3121 wrote: »

It is mainly to do with marketing
in my case the airport charges/taxes saving was around £130 (Ireland €12 v's UK at £142)
my actual saving by choosing to start journey in Dublin rather than London was over £5k...very little to do with airport charges

You may not be seeing too many more such bargains out of Dublin after today's announcement...there's still OSL, BRU, AMS and CPH though.

richardw

SW17 wrote: »

You may not be seeing too many more such bargains out of Dublin after today's announcement....

Are you referring to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32892990