AND HERE YOU HAVE IT

The whole point of low-cost airlines is that they save us money when compared to more standard carriers. Yet the opposite is true.

That’s according to a report from comparison site Idealo.co.uk which found that the average cost for a family on a no-frills flight with a budget airline is typically £29 more per seat compared with non-budget carriers.

Low-cost travel that isn't so low cost

The rise of low-cost travel has given many of us the opportunity to experience more of the world on the cheap.

But a backlash has raged for a few years now based on the sneaky surcharges budget airlines heap on, which bump up the price of your bargain holiday.

In general, flights booked by an individual can be cleverly executed to avoid a lot of the hidden costs, but when a family is involved there are just some things you cannot skimp on.

The research

The research from Idealo was based on a family of four with two parents, one child (between 2 and 11 years old) and one infant (under two).

The cost of a family flight was compared across 10 airlines over four popular short-haul flight routes out of London (Berlin, Barcelona, Palma Majorca & Alicante). The outbound flight was scheduled for Friday, July 13th and the return one on Monday, July 16th.

Of the 10 airlines analysed, four were low-cost carriers (EasyJet, Ryanair, Germanwings and Norwegian) and the other six (British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM, Air France, Air Berlin and Swiss) were standard carriers.

The reasonable criteria for a family to travel were established to consist of the following:

•    The two adults and child could each take one bag of 20kg.

•    The infant would be able to check one bag of 10kg.

•    The family will check one foldable pushchair and one car seat for the infant.

•    The family will guarantee that they can sit together.

•    The family will pay for the tickets with a credit card.

These bare minimum requirements (the report does not include things like food and drink or transfers from the airport) meant that a number of surcharges would likely be applied, unless they were already included in the advertised price. They included:

•    Baggage charges

•    Charges for priority boarding

•    Seat reservation charges

•    Infant fees

•    Credit card fees

•    Admin fees per passenger

The average cost is shown in the following table, with the cheapest first. The budget airlines are in bold:

Airline                   Avg. Total Price                                Avg. Price/Seat

Lufthansa                     £701.71                                             £233.90

easyJet                        £795.45                                             £265.15

British Airways             £817.38                                             £272.46

Swiss                           £825.68                                             £275.23

Ryanair                        £844.82                                             £281.61

Germanwings              £883.91                                             £294.64

Air France                    £899.86                                             £299.95

Air Berlin                      £946.59                                             £315.53

KLM                             £976.76                                             £325.59

Norwegian                   £1,270.87                                          £423.62

Source: Idealo.co.uk

As you can see the six non-budget airlines cost on average £29 a seat less than airlines that claim to save us money. For a family of four with an infant (which qualifies for free travel if under two) this amounts to £87 more than standard priced airlines.

In fact, Lufthansa, one of the largest airlines in Europe, did the best in terms of offering the best value for money whereas low-cost airline Norwegian was on average the most expensive way to travel as a family.

How can airlines that claim to be budget be costing us so much more money?

The real cost

Many of us realise through experience that the attractive advertised price is not the ‘real cost’ of flying with budget airlines. By the time you have booked your ticket, the add-ons really add-up.

Idealo's research points the finger at baggage as the main offender. It's not an easy area to cut down on either – in a typical family of four, on holiday for a few days, sticking to hand luggage just won’t cut it. Low-cost airlines charge an added premium whereas most other airlines give you a reasonable allowance of 20-23kg included in the price.

When the advertised cost was compared to the ‘real cost’ per seat, budget airlines did the worst. The difference per seat for non-budget airlines was on average just £18 or 7%.

However, the change was an astronomical £113.92 or 56% for budget airlines.

The worst offenders in the low-cost carrier line-up (surprise, surprise) were easyJet and Ryanair. While Norweigan and Germanwings saw a 24% and 33% mark-up on advertised prices, EasyJet and Ryanair dwarfed their low-cost peers charging a typical 92% and 166% more by the time you reach the ‘real cost’ of the flights at the checkout.

Lufthansa and Air France were the most transparent with hardly any change in the price by the time you came to paying for the flights. Lufthansa had a change on average of 0.2% (when an infant charge and credit card fees were applied) while Air France managed to achieve a decrease of 4% in the cost of the booking.

Airline       Avg. Cost / Passenger (Flight Search Engine)             Avg. ‘Real Cost’ / Passenger (including     % difference                                                                                                                                                        surcharges

Air France            £312.33                                                            £299.95                                             -4%

Lufthansa             £233.50                                                            £233.90                                             0.2%

KLM                      £323.00                                                            £325.59                                             0.8%

Swiss                    £247.50                                                            £275.23                                             11.2%

British Airways      £240.00                                                            £272.46                                             13.5%

Air Berlin               £258.25                                                            £315.53                                             22.2%

Norwegian             £343.00                                                            £423.62                                             23.5%

Germanwings        £222.33                                                            £294.64                                             32.5%

EasyJet                 £138.25                                                            £265.15                                             91.8%

Ryanair                 £105.75                                                            £281.61                                             166.3%

Source: Idealo.co.uk

[Related story: Martin Lewis: Time to change your cheap flight tactics]

Consumer behaviour

Despite the increased cost of budget airlines, there's still plenty of appetite for travelling with them. Indeed, easyJet saw an 8.9% increase in passenger numbers over the past 12 months.

Even though we have plenty of things to complain about, from surcharges and regional airports miles away from where we need to be, to bad service and cramped conditions we continue to reward these substandard carriers with our loyalty.

Does this mean that consumers are unaware of the real cost of budget airlines or that comparisons need to be more transparent?

As always not relying solely on comparison websites and shopping around for the best deal is key.

Generally if you are happy to travel lightly, midweek, bring your own refreshments and are able to arrange transport from airports miles out of cities, then budget flights are worth it. But when you travel as a family just checking what the other side of airline travel can offer could surprise you.

Does this mean that consumers are unaware of the real cost of budget airlines or that comparisons need to be more transparent?

I think this is more down to the way flights are advertised online.
Put into Google ‘flights Spain to UK‘, or vica versa and you will find that the first page will be filled with websites offering cheap flight deals. These websites make a profit from the companies whose flights they advertise, so not all companies will be represented.

On the face of it, a flight UK to Spain with Easyjet will look a much better deal than one with BA, for example. And, as your next action will be to click on the website link of your choice, you will be taken away from any comparison between the 2 companies.

I agree that when you take into account all costs, including the cost of travel to and from the airport for you and your family, plus the sheer inconvenience of travelling to and from airports far distant from your actual requirements, the budget airlines do not fair that well at all.

Personally, I look at flights which will get me from the nearest airport to the nearest airport and then compare price. When this comparison is made, especially when taking hold luggage, there is very little difference involved. So why put up with the inconveniences you may encounter with a budget airline, when at least you can travel in comfort and be treated with a little more courtesy on a standard airline?

I wonder if they should be called "Budget airlines" and not "Bandit airlines"?

This report just confirms the old adage that there are "lies, damn lies and statistics". Whilst one can not disagree that for the average family unit of two parents and 2 children it was cheaper to travel on the dates shown however it would have been cheaper to use the budgets if one looked at just the single traveller traveling. The whole point comes down to the modern laziness of the great unwashed in not doing their own 'homework' by looking at all flights from home to their destination. There are more things to take into account apart from the basic total cost of the flight. Time and costs in getting to the chosen airport at each end, the cost of parking at the selected airport, the time of the flight etc. and as mentioned above the size and make-up of the party. There is not a one size fits all solution.

On a personal note the I go to three separate destinations in the U.K. My nearest airport in Spain does not have the major carriers so there is only a choice of the budget airlines. If I wanted to use a major carrier I need to go to a larger airport which involves a 100 kilometer drive, parking at the airport and flights at not so convienient times. Also they only fly to one of the three destinations I wish to go to so they are not even worth looking at.

If it wasn't for the budget airlines offering flights at about £100 then we would return to the 'good old days' when flights with the majors would be around £500 to £700. The bottom line is nobody holds a gun to your head and tells you to book with budgets and suffer the poor service. We all make that choice ourselves so stop bleating and vote with your feet.

 The big problem, of course, is that the non "budget" airlines don't use the airports a lot of us want to travel from.   BA, for example, don't fly to Alicante at all.  If you wish to book with them from, say, Heathrow, it can take between 7 and 18 hours via Madrid, sometimes with an overnight stay.  Plus you get Iberia Express from Madrid which is a budget airline, anyway.  Using Lufthansa would be even worse with two stops, 1 in Germany or Holland, then Madrid.  The budget airlines at least go from places like Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow, Birmingham and East Midlands for example which saves the long travel to get to the airport and back.  

The budget airlines are, really, cattle class but if you follow their rules they are usually on time, fairly cheap and, most of all, convenient.  We are flying Easyjet next week from Gatwick to Alicante.  Cost (booked a while back) at £58 each all in is quite good.  They also have 3 flights in a day at convenient times.  Heathrow (just down the road from where my daughter lives) would have been £272 each and taken 8 hours 40 minutes instead of the 2 hours 40 minutes by Easyjet.  Even the more expensive budget airlines like Monarch have now started charging for booking seats and getting to Luton for 7.30 in the morning or Gatwick for 7.45 was not on.  The Easyjet one is a lunchtime flight which is convenient for both leaving and arriving.  

Horses for courses, as they say, but the more races you enter the more chance you have of winning.  Search around for the best deals.