“We’re not trying to be everyone’s favorite airline. We’re trying to be the airline that gets people where they need to go, at the lowest possible price.”
— Michael O'Leary, CEO Ryanair Group
The 21st century saw the rise of budget airlines in Europe. You can hop on one almost anywhere on the continent for under $250, and often much less. Of course, they are no-frills, have random seating, baggage fees, and often use smaller airports, but they are good value. There are dozens of them, and we have tried a few.
Ryanair, an Irish budget airline, is Europe’s largest low-cost carrier, with flights starting at 10 Euros. It operates 609 aircraft across 235 destinations, and has had no fatal accidents in its 40-year history. We first tried it in January, 2005 for roundtrip flights between London and Rome. It was our first experience of hearing a bugle go off like at the racetrack to celebrate our landing, a quirk the airline is known for.
It didn’t leave from Heathrow, so we took the "Stansted Express" train, which runs every 15 minutes, from Liverpool Station in London to Stansted Airport, northeast of the city. It took less than an hour.
The plane didn’t arrive at Rome’s major airport, Fiumicino, but at the smaller Ciampino, southeast of the city along the Via Appia Nuova. From there, we took a Terravision bus to Termini Roma, near the city center. That ride also took less than an hour.
In May, 2011, we flew Easyjet, a British budget airline, between Madrid, Spain and Marrakech, Morocco. It cost $89, per person, each way, and used the main Madrid and Marrakech airports. The airline serves 157 destinations with a focus on major cities like Paris and Amsterdam and has a strong safety record.
During that same month in 2011, we flew Ryanair several times: roundtrip Madrid, Spain to Pisa, Italy ($134 each, one way) and roundtrip Pisa, Italy to the island of Rhodes, Greece ($86 each, one way)—the latter flight to celebrate a lovely 40th Wedding Anniversary dinner on the island.
In September 2012, we flew Atlasjet (now called AtlasGlobal) from Ataturk International, Istanbul’s main airport, to Izmir on Turkey’s west coast ($47 each, one way). Several weeks later, we flew Anadolujet (now called AJet) from a small regional airport in Kayseri, in the Cappadocia region of Turkey, to Sabiha Gökçen, the smaller of Istanbul's airports, and where many of Turkey’s domestic flights arrive. ($54 each, one way).
Our most recent European budget flight was on Ryanair in October 2021. We flew from Fiumicino, the main airport of Rome, Italy, to Palermo, Sicily ($133 each, one way). Because we were making reservations on the fly and serendipity eventually led us to Sicily’s east coast, we decided it was impractical to travel back to Palermo a couple of weeks later for our return flight. Ryanair allowed us to change it online for a reasonable fee, and we flew from Catania, Sicily back to Rome ($133 each, one way + a $16 per person change fee).
These short hops were not luxurious, but they didn’t require the same comforts a long haul requires. The prices were right and we arrived safe and sound at each destination.