Cheap air travel has its advantages. It’s cheap. But is it cheerful?
While it might be possible to fly from London to Paris for a couple of bucks, travelers are warned to look out for hidden costs – not just having to bring your own sandwiches and pay to use the toilet – but to work out what the cab fare from the airport to your destination might be.
As the old joke has it, you can fly from London to New York for a pound, but the plane lands just outside New York. In Dublin.
An increasing number of airports are nowhere near the cities whose names they bear and Scottish travel site Skyscanner has just posted a listing of the worst offenders. Munich West (Memmingen) Airport is an alarming 70 miles from downtown Munich and London (Oxford) is 60 miles from central London. Quite a long walk even with just one carry-on piece of luggage.
Skyscanner director Barry Smith said: “If you jumped on a train that said it was going to London, but it was actually bound for Oxford, you’d be pretty annoyed. And rightly so. So how come they can get away with it when it comes to airports?
“It’s easy to get caught out by flying to an airport that is miles away from where you want to be, especially if you’re not familiar with your destination, and that low price flight could easily be offset by the cost of a bus or taxi fare. Double check the airport location before your book, especially when flying on low-cost airlines.”
Here’s Skyscanner’s top ten worst offenders:
1. Munich West (Memmingen) – 70 miles from central Munich
2. Oslo (Torp) – 68 miles from central Oslo
3. Frankfurt (Hahn) – 68 miles from central Frankfurt
4. London (Oxford) – 60 miles from central London
5. Stockholm (Skavsta) – 59 miles from central Stockholm
6. Barcelona (Girona) – 58 miles from central Barcelona
7. Barcelona (Reus) – 58 miles from central Barcelona
8. Paris (Beauvais ) – 55 miles from central Paris
9. Dusseldorf (Weeze) – 50 miles from central Dusseldorf
10. London (Stansted) – 40 miles from central London
On the other hand, some airports are actually located in the cities they serve:
1. Taipei Sungshan Airport – 3 miles from central Taipei
2. Salt Lake City Airport – 3 miles from central Salt Lake City
3. Honolulu Airport – 4 miles from central Honolulu
4. Lisbon Airport – 4 miles from central Lisbon
5. Bucharest Otopeni Airport – 4 miles from central Bucharest
6. Mexico City Juarez International – 4 miles from central Mexico City
7. London City Airport – 6 miles from central London
8. Warsaw Airport – 6 miles from central Warsaw
9. Vancouver Airport – 8 miles from central Vancouver
10. Edinburgh Airport – 8 miles from central Edinburgh
Although having been to Salt Lake City a couple of times, I have yet to find what passes for its center.
