Gatwick Departures (Bristol Rip-off)

[Paul D]

Even tho we travel in June , I decided to experiment and price Arillas for Oct 09.
If you are prepared to go from Gatwick, then prices are great, but Bristol or Cardiff are better for us. But to fly from Bristol, it costs approx £200 each extra. I think this is scandalous. Are they trying to force people to certain airports?
 So we fly from Gatwick in three months, but still save money by not going from Bristol. Does anyone know how they justify this price differential? To get our Arillas fix, Then Gatwick it will have to be.
                Yammas  Paul D

[Sara]

Hi Paul,
I live about an hours drive from Bristol or Cardiff or Birmingham, but we still make the 2.5 hour journey to Gatwick because it is so much cheaper, even taking into account car parking.  When Easyjet announced they were flying from Bristol, I thought great, the flights were cheap, but sadly as you mentioned the prices have now increased & once again its cheaper to fly from Gatwick - its such a shame because Cardiff airport is great.

[martin-w]

Hi All!
I have been saying this for some time now and I have posted long arguments on this forum on this subject. It seems ludicrous to me that to get a cheap flight I have to travel to Gatwick when Cardiff is on the doorstep! In these days of 'carbon footprint' and 'necessary' journeys and all that, why oh why isn't it cheaper or at least the same price to travel from your 'local' airport instead of having to travel large distances to an already overcrowded 'central' airport? Nobody seems to know or want to explain to the rest of us left in the dark as to the economics of it all! Who decides on all these 'local airport supplements' and 'regional price surcharges'. There have been some recent articles in the local paper concerning Cardiff airport and ways to make it more 'profitable' by making 'easier' access. All concerned at the airport have stated they are not responsible for the higher fares. Perhaps someone out there could enlighten us all as to who is!
I'll get off my soap box now and will be paying the outstanding balance for my air fare to Corfu this year of £349 from Cardiff (up £100 from last year), as the thought of the 6 hour coach journey to Gatwick both ways has convinced me to 'go local'.
Yammas,
Martin.

[ger]

we are flying from birmingham, not as cheap as gatwick, but over £200 cheaper than bristol! we live north of bristol, so its not too far up the motorway to birmingham, just would have preferred bristol, but not worth paying the extra money, even the car park is cheaper at birmingham!
ger x

[Castaway]

Hi just to say that in the current economic climate their are far fewer flights from regional airports. One has to bear in mind that from the regional airports the tour operators tie their flights seats up with beds and are mainly in the business of selling package holidays as the beds will have to be paid for come what may. They will then sell off seats as they see they have more seats than beds (because beds have been sold tied to seats from a diffrent airport). They will also sell them off as seat sales as the date gets nearer. Thomsons would like to relieve me of nearly 500 pounds for my mother's return seat from Exeter in May now, I believe that like last year that will come down to around 280/300. I can swallow the fairly high price for the convenience and counting the cost of getting to another airport.
Have you checked out Easyjet who fly from Bristol (and Manchester) this year?
Tour operators business is holidays, those that have tried to take a chunk of the flight seat market ended in tears, remember XL.

[justphil]

Jen and me hate airports, but at the top of our list is Bristol. It is only 40 minutes drive from us, but we often get the train to Gatwick. I am so in tune with Martin. Hundreds of pounds extra to add to the planet's woes, a surly and uninviting attitude by nearly everyone there, marginal safety - remember the plane that overshot the runway last year?

Now what we would like would be the "beam me up Scotty" Star Trek option. Just imagine - back from pub on Sunday afternoon. Off to Arillas in an instant, and dinner with Vasillis at Amourada then back in time for work on Monday.... Never see another airport in your whole life!

Dream over.

[justlynn]

Hi Phil,
Can I share your dream? 
lol,
lynn xx

[justjen]

Live the dream Lynn - just wish I could get in that teleporter.......

love Jen xxx

[Rick1883]

We're in north Bristol and wouldn't even entertain the idea of a dreary drive or over-expensive rail trip to Gatwick.

Speak as you find but we've never had the slightest problem at Bristol.

It's utter nonsense to suggest the airport is somehow unsafe - do you think the authorities would allow it to stay open if it was? - and maybe those who have found the staff unpleasant just picked a bad day.  I've found them to be the same as aircraft workers everywhere else.

Yes, it's more expensive flying from 'regional' airports but give me a 45 minute drive and cheap off site car parking than half a day getting to Gatwick at the start of the holiday and worse still half a day getting home from it.

[justphil]

Respect your views Rick (1883) but Jen and me have a different experience.

We were in the air when the plane overshot, and got diverted to Cardiff. It caused us a lot of problems.

But at least nobody died. The runway at Bristol was inadequate. They had to resurface it in a hurry and make grooves in it to improve the friction when wet.

And the people who work there in Customs and Excise need an awful lot of training. They are the airport's worst horrors. Disgraceful. Ah - I could write so many offensive words about them.  I just deleted what I was going to say.

Bristol Airport is the most hateful and awful places I have ever had to spend part of my life in. Gatwick may not be much better but it is. If I weren't so obsessed with Arillas, I would never go near either. And many of my forum friends will agree with me about theirs.

Now to reality and home, I guess you agree with me that Arillas is worth suffering all that crap - I wish I was joining Sandy x and Eileen for easter even if i had to suffer f*****g bristol airport......

Sorry for the rant...

[Dai]

I will be flying from Bristol in June, even though I live in Cardiff. I've used Bristol several times and never had any problems. When booking my flight I was quoted £93 return from Bristol with Easyjet and £345 from Cardiff with Thomson. Guess which one I bought. Presumably the price is down to timing though the flights from Cardiff to Corfu are all charter flights and therefore linked to package holidays. I've had some decent deals from Cardiff but only at last minute - last year I booked my flight the night before I left and paid £107 return!

[Smiffypink]

I must be in the minority, i love airports!!

Thats where my holiday starts, im like a big kid, all excited, Brett has got used to me now hahaha!!

[Geoff]

Well thank goodness for that - I thought I was the only one whose holiday started at the airport. My first action is to have a full English Breakfast, regardless of the time of day, and yeh - I know - as breakfasts go most airport ones are well over-priced and pretty awful, but I don't do breakfast for the rest of the year, so it's part of the start to my holiday.
But, having said all of that, I agree with Phil - Next Thursday I will leave home to catch a train at 8.00pm to travel overnight to Gatwick to catch the silly-o-clock EasyJet flight to Corfu, arriving at lunchtime on Friday. Not exactly a load of fun, we only put ourselves through all that travelling to get to Arillas. Wish I was there permanently.

[Joe]

Manchester and Gatwick have the bulk of our fleet, resources can be shared making it much more cost efficient. One aircraft bases for us such as Bristol or Cardiff are much more expensive as all the staff are employed for that sole aircraft. Regional flights is something that we offer more of now but its always going to be at a premium.

[ColinD]

Easyjet have their offices at Luton, where they started I believe.  We live mid-way between Luton and Stansted, where EasyJet also fly from since they bought out "GO", a British Airway subsidiary, several years ago.

However, can we get a flight from Luton or Stansted?  No chance!  It's not a question of price, they simply don't fly from either to Corfu.  Only from Gatwick.

The only way to get from Stansted to Corfu it seems, is to fly via Athens.