European budget airlines guide

While most people would have heard of the famous English budget carriers like Easy Jet and Ryan Air, the length of this list might surprise.  Despite many buget carriers going broke over the past two tumultuous years, there’s literally a plague of budget airlines across Europe.  Like Jetstar these carriers will charge you through the nose for extras, just be sure you know exactly what your paying for.

Out of London start off with the usual suspects like Easy Jet, and for the rest of Europe there are plenty of other budget options on offer.

England/flights out of London

BMI Baby - Flights between England and Czech Rep., France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Wales

British European – Flights between England and Channel Islands, France, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Ulster

EasyJet -Flights between England (London) and Denmark, France, Greece, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Ulster

Jet2 – Flights between England ( Leeds-Bradford) and France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain

My Travel Lite   -Flights between England and France, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland. This company has been integrated into Thomas Cook Airlines as of 2008.

Ryanair -  Flights between England (London-Stansted) and Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Morocco, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden

ThomsonFly – Flights between England and France, Italy, Jersey, Spain, Morocco

Monarch Airlines – Flights between England (London-Luton) and Gibraltar, Portugal, Spain

Ireland

BudgetAir -  Flights between Ireland (Dublin) and France, Greece, Portugal, Spain

Aer Arann -Flights within Ireland and from Ireland to England, Scotland

Scotland

Air Scotland – Flights between Scotland  and Spain

Globespan – Flights between Scotland  and France, Italy, Spain

Budget Carriers  departing from other European capitals

Air Baltic – Flights between home bases Riga (Latvia), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Czech Rep., Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine

Air Berlin – Flights within Germany and from Germany ( Berlin) to Austria, Cyprus, Egypt, England, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey

Air Finland – Flights within Finland (Helsinki) and from Finland to France, Italy, Spain

Baboo – Flights between Switzerland (Geneva) and Czech Rep., France, Italy, Spain

BelleAir -  Flights from Italy to Albania, Greece, Turkey

Blue1 -  Flights within Finland and from Finland (home base Helsinki) to Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden

Blue Air – Flights between Romania  and France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey

Blue-Express – Flights within Italy and Italy ( Rome) to Austria, France, Germany, Libya

City Jet – Flights between Belgium  and England, Germany, Guernsey, Italy, Jersey, Luxembourg and Netherlands

Clickair -  Flights between Spain (Barcelona) and Czech Rep., France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland

Condor -  Flights from Germany to most European countries

Corendon -  Flights between Netherlands and Turkey

Evolavia - Flights between Italy (Ancona) and France, Russia, Spain

Fare4U - Flights between Malta  and London Stansted

Fly Dba – Flights within Germany and from Germany to France, Spain

German Wings - Flights within Germany and from Germany (Cologne) to Austria, Czech Republic, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey

TUIfly – Flights within Germany and from Germany to England, France, Italy, Spain

Helvetic Airways -  Flights between Switzerland (Zurich) and Austria, Belgium, Spain

Iceland Express – Flights between Iceland and Denmark, England

InterSky -  Flights between Austria (Wien) and France, Italy, Switzerland

Itali Airlines – Flights within Italy and Croatia

Norwegian – Flights between Sweden (Stockholm) and Norway (Website was done at time of writing – this may be a common occurrence)

Pegasus Airlines -  Flights within Turkey and Turkey – Germany

Scandjet -Flights between Sweden and Bosnia, Croatia

Smart Wings - Flights between Czech Republic (Prague) and Denmark, France, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland

SAS - This Scandinavian Carrier used to have a seperate budget sister company, but with drew this and now offers cheap rate flights on its existing routes. Flights from Denmark (Copenhagen) and Sweden (home base Stockholm) to Czech Rep., France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Turkey

Sterling / Cimba – Sterling was a budget carrier which was sold and resold and finally went bust in 2007. It has however been bought by Cimba, who have said they will restore and expand the service previously operating between Denmark (Copenhagen) and France, Greece, Italy, Madeira, Norway, Spain, Sweden

Sun Express – Flights between Turkey (Antalya) and Austria, Germany, Switzerland

Transavia – Flights between Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden

Vueling Airlines - Flights within Spain  and from Spain to Brussels, Paris

Windjet Vola -  Flights within Italy (home base Sicily)

Wizz Air – Flights from Hungary  and Poland (home base Katowice) to Czech Rep., England, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden

This list was a fair bit longer pre 2007, when many budget airlines that had sprung up in a fertile economy in the early 2000s went bust. Several went into adminstration and others were merged or bought out by rivals. Despite this, it is still a very competitive and healthy industry for those of us looking for a bargin basement fair.