One of the parts of air travel that can add to the overall cost is the price put on the ticket by the airport facility itself, or just the fees to have slots at the major airports. In some places, it can be very high. As a result, low-cost carriers like Ryanair can help keep their prices low by not flying to those major, international airports. Good for the wallet, but you better make sure you check your map!
Do You Know Where Ryanair Is Taking You?
I was checking out some flights recently on Ryanair and saw some very good prices to a couple of the airports – along with direct flights! That was enough to get me to go through the booking process but I did like I normally do with a new (to me) Ryanair flight – I checked which airport it is flying into.f
Where Is The Airport You Are Flying To?
Check the airport code for your destination city. In this case, it was not the ARN code that is for Stockholm’s major airport.
The city was Stockholm and the direct flight with SAS that I wanted left just sooner than I needed it to. So in checking alternatives, Ryanair popped up for only $30 from Greece! Not bad at all, so I went to Google to see how far away the Stockholm Skavsta airport was from the city center. I thought that the price and the fact that it was non-stop would be enough if it was just out of town.
The airport “in” Stockholm was much farther than I thought it would be!
Except it was more than out of town – it was between 90 – 120 minutes by bus from where I needed to be! That was not going to work very well and I had been so close to just purchasing the ticket because the nonstop and cost components grabbed my attention. However, because I know that airports Ryanair serves can be out of the way, I wanted to check.
Where Is Beauvais-Tillé Airport?
Know which airport in Paris you are flying into!
Like in Paris, France. Of course, most people are familiar with the big airports – like Paris’ Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport that is the major hub for Air France and used by other international carriers to ferry passengers into and out of Paris. Some people also know about another airport in Paris, Orly. This airport is smaller and still has some nice connections so you can book flights into/out of this airport to avoid the huge airport of de Gaulle, plus it is closer to the city.
The “Paris” airport that Ryanair flies into | Photo by https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Remi_Mathis
But, then you have another, low-cost carrier airport. It is code BVA and is actually over 50 miles from the city of Paris! There are transportation options to the city but it is good to know before buying a ticket to Paris that your destination is actually 50 miles outside of Paris at a small airport (if you fly with Ryanair).
Finding Out Where You Are Headed
Does this mean you should not fly Ryanair? Absolutely not! I flew with them last year from London and had a great coach ride to Stansted airport and a good flight to Greece without having to deal with the craziness of Heathrow. But, you should do your homework to make sure you are not going to be quite a bit off from where you want to be.
First of all, if you plan on renting a car during your stay, I would fly into one of the major airports. If the small airport does have rental car companies, they are likely going to be charging more than the big rental outfits at the major airports (sometimes even with the airport fee many rental companies put on their rentals for being at the airport).
After that, just check the airport code that is listed on the Ryanair website for your destination or take note of the complete airport name. Next, go to Google Maps and enter the address of your hotel or some other destination location and the name of the airport Ryanair flies to. Google will give you options for public transportation and it will tell you how long it will take and how often those buses/trains run.
Now that you have this info, you can check the train schedules and prices to see if using Ryanair is still going to be cheaper for you – given the time and cost of transportation – over flying into one of the larger airports in the city you are visiting.
Summary
Low cost carriers like Ryanair can be a great way to see Europe on the cheap. Just be prepared with your expectations of what you will need to do to make it as doable of a trip as possible. It certainly is a nice, cheap way to travel but you need to know some things ahead of time, like the baggage restrictions and where you are going!
Were you ever surprised by the airport Ryanair actually flew you to? What was the most remote Ryanair destination you ever landed at?
So who is wrong? Ryanair or the airport? My point is that NYO is indeed names Stockholm Skavsta Airport however it is 62miles SW of Stockholm in a city called Nyköping, Thus, it should not be named Stockholm if it is not located in that city. Low cost airlines always use this trick to attract customers that are not aware of the location of the airports.
Here you find an interesting article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3110706/The-15-airports-furthest-cities-named-one-131-MILES-away-think-is.html
That is a good point! It is probably a combination because it brings in business for the airport and Ryanair. I will check out the article – thanks! Btw, hotels do it too. They will call themselves an airport hotel, while being 20 miles away sometimes!