Europe Budget Travel? Learn about Gatwick
Get Transatlantic Air to Heathrow, Transfer to Gatwick for Low Fares
Oct 22, 2009
What's the cheapest way to get from the US to the continent? Sometimes fares to Rome, Berlin or Amsterdam are cheap, but London's often the best point of entry for budget European travel. Travelers can find bargain US-London fares, because London's a travel hub, and the market for transatlantic flights is competitive. The hitch is in getting from London to the destination in Europe. Major airlines departing Heathrow for European cities charge high fares for short flights. And while travelers can find better deals among the dozen or so lower-cost European regional airlines, like Easy Jet or Ryan Air, these smaller airlines depart from London's Gatwick Airport, not Heathrow. So, travelers are faced with the the unpleasant prospect of switching London airports.
The only way to get from Heathrow to Gatwick is by car, cab or bus. London's excellent underground network (which connects Heathrow to Picadilly Circus, for instance) doesn't connect the two airports. Gatwick is located 28 miles south of London. Learn how to transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick.
There are pros and cons to the Heathrow-Gatwick transfer. The downside is convenience: after a transatlantic flight a person might not feel like a bus ride to another airport. On the other hand, the savings can add up to as much as several hundred dollars. And, the Gatwick flights go into smaller airports, serving some otherwise hard-to-reach cities.
Tourists, Business Travelers Use Low-Cost Regional Airlines Departing Gatwick
London's Gatwick Airport serves 32 million passengers annually, comparable to Miami International Airport or Munich's Franz Josef Stauss Airport. It's the UK’s second largest airport and the busiest single runway airport in the world, serving over 200 destinations in 90 countries The airport code is LGW.
Over a dozen carriers fly in and out of London Gatwick Airport. The airlines with the most departures from Gatwick include Air Lingus, British Airways, Easy Jet, TAP Air Portugal, and Thomas Cook.
Business travelers use these London Gatwick-based airlines for cheap flights back and forth from London to major European cities, such as Athens, Amsterdam, Rome and Vienna, among others. Students and tourists depart Gatwick on cheap flights to enjoy the beaches of Corfu, the historic scenery of Dubrovnik, and the ski slopes of Innsbruck or Zermat.
Fares on the regional carriers can be quite reasonable, in the $100 range. Several companies, notably Ryan Air and Easy Jet, have won the hearts of consumers for occasionally charging ridiculously low fares — occasionally as little as $10 per passenger — for promotional purposes and to fill their planes.
Regional carriers cover small cities. Travelers headed to what might be considered a second or third-tier tourist destination — not Paris — are more likely to find direct flights departing from Gatwick than Heathrow. For instance, Norwegian Air departing London Gatwick goes not only to Copenhagen and Oslo but also to Aalborg, Bergen, Stavanger and Tromso.
Which Airlines Fly Direct from US to Gatwick?
Very few airlines fly directly from the US to London Gatwick. Specifically:
- British Airways has some scheduled flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, and from Tampa, Florida into Gatwick
- Virgin Atlantic flies from Las Vegas and Orlando into Gatwick.
Given the scarcity of US-Gatwick flights, bargain travelers coming from the US will need to find ground transportation from Heathrow to Gatwick. The good news is this: getting from Heathrow to Gatwick is an easy trip, 90 minutes on a frequently-run airport transport bus, run by the National Express company, that can be booked well in advance, online. The bad news is that making any kind of transfer is a hassle after a long transatlantic flight, when jet lag's having an effect.
Recently Sold, London's Gatwick Airport is Primed for Upgrade
Long the ugly duckling half-sibling to spiffy, sophisticated Heathrow, Gatwick Airport is poised for a makeover — and in the long run, that will be good news for travelers. In October 2009, Gatwick was sold for 1.5 billion British pounds, in a deal that the British government helped orchestrate in order to increase competition among not airlines, but airports. According to a BBC report on the sale, one of the new owners said they expect to "upgrade and modernise Gatwick Airport to transform the experience for both business and leisure passengers."
The change of ownership will, hopefully, mean that Gatwick will expand the budget-conscious regional carrier market, and become an increasingly important gateway for US tourists traveling to the United Kingdom and Europe in general.
All in all, transferring from Heathrow to Gatwick in order to catch a cheap flight to a destination in Northern or Southern Europe, with an inexpensive, 90-minute airport transfer by bus, might be just the ticket for today's budget traveler. If it's true that time is money, it seems that the inverse is also true: saving money can also take time.
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