So who do you think is the most expensive airline from London to Glasgow?

[LTNman]

Months ago I booked four seats to Glasgow flying out at 07.45 on April 16th returning on the last flight of the day at 19.35 on April 18th with easyjet from Luton. The total price including tax was around £165.

Out of interest I have looked up the prices for those flights today and the price other airlines charge for those dates flying at the closest possible times.

£573.52 Ryanair from Stansted
£460.00 BA from Gatwick
£443.92 Easyjet from Luton
£423.60 British Midland from Heathrow
£365.50 BA from Heathrow
£363.92 easyjet from Stansted

I could have got a fare of £326.60 by booking a 21.25 departure on the return leg from British Midland. So remember that in this case Ryanair wins the title of the high fares airline.

[Runway 31]

If it makes any difference I just tried the same day for Ryanair Stansted - Prestwick and got a quote of £441:52 all in. I could have got it cheaper if I had taken an earlier flight

Interestingly if each person was to book individually you could get it for £361:52. I assume that the flights are getting full and the yield management must be working.

It is again interesting that the Ryanairs summer schedule is in operation at that time and they have reduced the number of flights each day between Stansted and Prestwick to improve the yield.

[baps]

Add to the ryanair fare the cost of a bus, train or taxi to actually get to Glasgow and it only gets worse!!

[PH-UKU]

LTNMan wrote - "Months ago I booked four seats to Glasgow flying out at 07.45 on April 16th returning on the last flight of the day at 19.35 on April 18th with easyjet from Luton. The total price including tax was around £165."

Surely the appropriate wording here is 'months ago' ? I don't fink you are comparing like with like.

If you then leave it until less than 2 weeks before the flight to get other quotes then it is no surprise if you get higher fare quotes.

Out of interest I flew PIK-STN last week - depart 8am, return 8pm. 2 seats, total cost was £34. ie. £17 each. That was booked a week before.

But .... beware if you buy Stansted Express tickets onboard for £21 each. They may be a saving of £3 on the 'normal' return of £24 but the onboard staff lied to me about it being the cheapest fare .......... if you travel into London on or after the 0930 train you can get cheap day return for only £13.90 - £7.10 less than RYR sell them for.

Buyer beware.

[BALIX]

Add to the ryanair fare the cost of a bus, train or taxi to actually get to Glasgow and it only gets worse!!

Erm, no it doesn't. I'm not sure about the deal at the moment but RYR passengers get discounted or free rail transport to Glasgow direct from the station at the airport.

It may well be more expensive (and less convinient) to get to central Glasgow from GLA.

[eng123]

Well said Balix.Baps is certainly talking a lot of balix on here!

[johnwalton]

Erm, no it doesn't. I'm not sure about the deal at the moment but RYR passengers get discounted or free rail transport to Glasgow direct from the station at the airport.

I think you can get free train tickets if you're travelling on one of their new routes, but normally the discount is 50%. Journey time of about 45 minutes if I remember correctly, don't know how that compares with GLA, think the bus is about £3 and takes 20 minutes from there.

[Runway 31]

While in theory is should take 20 minutes on the bus, at times it takes more than that just to get over the Kingston Bridge.

[Phil Dubai]

Runway 31, When was the last time you travelled on the Airport-City service? Thought so, never! You've been listening to too much of the Joe Curry anti GLA poison.
Fact is, a bus leaves the airport every 10 mins for the city and, unlike the train, doesn't take an unwanted tour of the Ayrshire countryside. The bottom line is, if PIK had anything to offer as an airport, the airlines would be clamouring to operate from there but it hasn't and they aren't!

[PPRuNe Radar]

Phil Dubai,

You ever been over the Kingston Bridge in peak hours ??

Runway 31 said it took more than 20 minutes 'at times'. He is right. At peak times it will take a lot more than 20 minutes.

Try reading the post. Or are you the GLA version of EDIs Joe Curry ??
:hmm:

[Localiser Green]

And who is the most punctual carrier between London and Glasgow, by a rather significant margin??

4th Table Down... (http://www.flightontime.info/scheduled/keyroutes/keyroutes.html)

[Eric T Cartman]

@ Phil Dubai

A minor fact about buses into Glasgow from Ayrshire :
The X34 & X36 which pass GLA Airport are normally allowed 37 minutes from Beith to Buchanan Street. However, in the morning between the 0805 & 0935 arrivals @ B.Street, Stagecoach increase this to between 53 & 56 minutes, an increase of between 16 & 19 minutes, solely to cope with delays on the Kingston Bridge.
I'm sure our visitors from overseas to Glasgow who make the mistake of arriving at GLA between 0730 & 0900 Mon to Fri, are really impressed with the time they get to study Ibrox & Kinning Park whilst sitting in their bus or taxi, as the trains from Ayr pass by with only the occasional glitch to slow their progress !

You posted : ...."The bottom line is, if PIK had anything to offer as an airport, the airlines would be clamouring to operate from there but it hasn't and they aren't!"

The thread question was "So who do you think is the most expensive airline from London to Glasgow?" , not which is the better airport, so perhaps you would like to start your own "GLA is miles better!" thread ? ;-)

[Hial Flyer]

Why are people in Scotland obsessed with the traffic over the Kingston Bridge.

Yes it can be busy but is nothing compared to getting to LHR,LGW,LTN or STN on a Friday afternoon or a Monday morning ( or even a Sunday evening) by road.

A 15-20 minute delay would be a luxury.

Pax arriving at PIK and travelling to GLA by road join the M8 just before the Kingston Bridge anyway so end up in the same traffic.

[Runway 31]

Hial Flyer, you asked

Why are people in Scotland obsessed with the traffic over the Kingston Bridge.

Yes it can be busy but is nothing compared to getting to LHR,LGW,LTN or STN on a Friday afternoon or a Monday morning ( or even a Sunday evening) by road.

You may think my answer is parochial but maybe its because we travel over the Kingston Bridge that we are obsessed with it. I don't travel by road around London so don't give a hoot about the traffic down there.

Anyway let the train take the strain and get back to the Ryan bashing.

[Flightmapping]

I go through GLA perhaps 4x / year, and have never had a problem on Kingston Bridge, but I haven't been there at peak times.

An easy alternative is to take the bus or taxi to Paisley Gilmour Street, from where there are frequent trains to Glasgow Central.

PIK is irrelevant from most parts of the UK, as there aren't many domestic routes going there. I would imagine that ww haven't changed their EMA routes to PIK because that would take away most of the savings.

Why go from Birmingham to EMA to PIK then treck into the centre of Glasgow, when Flybe offer perfectly good fares from BHX? The train would be quicker than doing EMA > PIK, and a lot less hassle + much better value if booking in advance.

[billyg]

Quite right Hial Flyer, every major airport has road traffic probs morning and evening at busy times. Its fashionable, in central Scotland , to GLA bash , particularly if you live east of Harthill and southwest of Paisley. Thankfully , the worlds major airlines chose to ignore the anti-GLA spin and new airlines appearing this year will increase the yearly pax figs by at least 1 million! :D