The World Budget Airline Overview, Guide

The following is a very informational and helpful guide/overview to the world’s budget airlines. With airlines that are operating at record level efficiencies, budget airlines are growing worldwide and are a necessity in many international trips. This uber comprehensive budget airline guide was written by Giles from Travel Independent, which a very good backpacking travel resource. In his own words, it’s a site about everything you need to know about independent budget travel, aka. backpacking. But I present to you, the world budget airline guide.

Many traveler already know flying (after their main flight that is) in terms of internal flights and short inter-regional hops can be great value for money/time and a godsend commonly overlooked by backpackers. Certainly in the developed world, flying can be cheaper than the overland option, okay sometimes it’s a more expensive luxury option, but you save a hell of a lot of time and more importantly sanity, especially when crossing difficult terrain such as mountains or water. Not to mention as so many times is the case, where overland travel just simply isn’t possible or physical/visa barriers create major hassle. Many budget travelers think they can’t afford flights, but if you are lucky, do your homework and try and book early, costs aren’t prohibitive and if you allow for a few in your budget you will feel a lot happier especially if doing a big trip over long distances.

The huge growth in budget airlines, aka. low-cost carriers and technology means many carriers now operate good websites and issue e-tickets. Take Air Asia as an example and make a few searches and see just how easy and cheap flying has now become in some parts of the world. The only warning to offer is that this is no secret and on notoriously painful routes in peak seasons (say Christmas), popular legs like Bombay to Goa get booked pretty solid and prices go through the roof. So with out further ado here’s a quick low-down on budget airline around the world:

Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific: Prior to 2000 cheap-fare alternatives to Qantas and Ansett had failed, but then came Virgin Blue and Jetstar, which both have excellent domestic coverage with fares from about 35US$. Virgin Blue also flies to the Pacific and Jetstar into Asia – Bali and Bangkok among others. Skywest is worth noting for Perth to Broome (skipping the Gibb River Road). Between Australia and New Zealand, Freedom Air has cheap flights from about 135US$ and competition is fierce with Jetconnect (see Qantas NZ site) and Jetstar. Between Oz and NZ routes such as Brisbane to Christchurch and Melbourne to Dunedin make exploring much more effective than the standard Sydney to Auckland route.

India and Sri Lanka: 2003 saw the launch of the first Indian low-cost: Air Deccan which had great prices, but some bizarre fare rules and since has inspired many imitators. Routes are numerous so best to check the carriers websites or the India section of this site for a better overview. Remember also this is India and what can go wrong (delays, cancellations, etc) probably will. Good carriers include, SpiceJet, GoAir, and IndiGo Airlines. With Kingfisher and Jet Airlines included you have coverage of about 50 domestic destinations and several international including London. Many of these airlines offer passes if you really want to see a lot in short time, but considering distances in India you might find some fares not inline with the average Indian travel budget. Both Sri Lankan Airways and Mihin Air can get you to Sri Lanka.

South East Asia: The main payers are Tiger Airways which has a great routes and can connect you to the Philippines dirt cheap and Jetstar Asia Airways, these two are based in Singapore which was home to the regions first budget airline. Across the border AirAsia is very useful for Borneo and getting to islands of Penang and Langkawi; they are expanding fast and offer a Bangkok to Hanoi route for about 50US$ which is incredibly handy - as well as loads of other routes and sometimes (promotional) silly prices. Thailand’s Nok Air also has a burgeoning network from Bangkok and Pacific Airlines of Vietnam seems to be making the restructuring steps to be come a low-cost carrier too. Indonesia’s Adam Air, doesn’t have the best reputation, but Air Asia and Lion Air or good alternative and can get you from Jakarta to Bali for (if you get the timing right) about 40US$.

North America: Southwest Airlines started the whole no-frills budget airline revolution back-in 1971 and was the model that Ryan Air copied which snowballed cheap flights in Europe and around the world. Southwest now has plenty of competition, flying to all parts of the US of A, south of the border to Mexico and into the Caribbean – carriers are too numerous to list here (but I’ll mention Spirit) and normally specializing in a particular region or route, but easily revealed by a few web searches. In Canada several low cost carriers have folded, but WestJet serves many cities and the States too. After the sell off of state-owned Mexicana, Mexico got it’s own budget carrier and many followed suit, the best of which are Aviacsa and Aero California both of which have English language websites. Click Mexicana is also worth a mention.

South America: Really the low-costs airlines have only taken route in Brazil, but still they have some useful links with some flying internationally to the big hubs across the continent. Gol is the most famous and connected. Other options include BRA and Ocean Air. In both Chile and Argentina you will find several option and elsewhere state and ‘normal’ carriers (if you book right) can be an okay price, but aren’t set up for self-booking on the net. In fact self-booking and using the budget airline or state network in South America just isn’t as easy or as practical as in Europe or Asia with some site being Spanish or Portuguese only, not accepting foreign cards or just don’t offer online booking, but things are sure to change.

Africa: As with much in Africa, things are patchy at best with as you might expect, few low-cost set up airlines. In South Africa, Kulula has an expanding network in Southern Africa and Mango is South African Airlines response. Also worth a mention is Precision Air domestic in Tanzania and Fly540 in Kenya - with very few routes at present it seems keen on expanding and hopefully so in a continent where getting from North, South, East, West by air can be stupidly expensive.

Middle East: Air Arabia is the Middle East’s first low cost airline and has some great value flights around gulf states and further airfield to India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, among others. It’s based in Sharjah which is a little bit of pricy taxi ride 30-60mins north of Dubai. While hops around the gulf won’t be of much interest to most travelers, the potential to use cheap flights from Europe and particular London to Dubai as a stepping-stone to other more interesting destinations might be. On to India is great value and there are some interesting routes into Central Asia, Nepal and Yemen. Another mention is Jazeera Airways, which has flights from Kuwait and Dubai to India, Egypt, etc with plans for more routes.

European Budget Airlines

Okay and what about Europe? Well for one I promised to keep this article short; nowhere has the explosion of low-cost of carriers been more profound and most will be familiar with names like Ryan Air, Easy Jet, SkyEurope, and Air Berlin. Especially when visiting island such as the UK or Ireland and with high-priced overland travel, flying around Europe if done right, lets you see a lot and very much on the cheap. Flights under 40US$ inc. taxes/charges, if booked well ahead are pretty easy to find on popular routes like London-Dublin or Berlin-Rome.

For more details on the tens of European carriers and all budget airlines in general, you are recommended to attitude travel as a great resource. Equally it is worth noting that there are some start-up low cost carriers flying international routes (generally out of London) with Hong Kong (Oasis) and North America (Zoom) being a focus - pricing is per flight, not return (perfect) and using these and their best promotional fairs coupled with the above inter-regional cheap carriers and some good planning, off season you could probably piece together a round-the-world flight for very little compared to conventional means.

And to conclude, a very quick 3 point disclaimer: a word to the wise.., 1) low-cost or not, wait until the last minute to book and the price is likely be sky high. 2) for the best travel experience flying should be part of an overland trip using trains/buses at some point to get best out of and ‘experience’ your destination, and finally 3) we all know there is no such thing as a totally footprint free traveler and there are plenty of details on the net about the effects of flying for you to find if you like. Otherwise… happy travels. See you on the road (or in the air!)