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Europe is particularly well served by budget airlines and the wealth of choice available can be daunting.

Many travellers end up settling for the well known names because the price seems low and it then saves them the hassle of searching the market for other options. The first problem with this is that you may end up paying more than you have to, although in the cut-throat market conditions of today any price differences are likely to be slight. The real problem is that by narrowing the choice of airlines passengers are also limiting the options of airport they can fly to and from. This often means people travelling many miles out of their way on the ground to get to an airport from which their chosen airline flies when they could have travelled from an airport closer to home.

This guide is divided into three, the first section deals with the large, well known names that serve all of Europe. The second section is western and southern Europe and the third is Eastern Europe.

• Airlines serving all of Europe

For better or worse, Ryanair’s reputation precedes it. Few European travellers can be unaware that the advantages of its low prices and extensive route network are mitigated by the disadvantages of troublesome business practises and near total disregard for its passengers. If you do not mind being treated like cattle by a company you are paying for its services then this is the airline for you. Easyjet runs a similar operation with a very wide network coupled with very low prices. With many of the same routes, similar prices and the same business model there is little to tell the two apart but I have found that the main difference is in the level of service. Whereas Ryanair treats passengers as a hindrance to their movement of planes about the skies, Easyjet shows a commitment to the ideals of customer service that is all the more welcoming. Both of these airlines run across vast networks, often using very small provincial airports that other companies would be hard pressed to find on the map, let alone use themselves.

• South-western Europe airlines

The south-western European routes are cash cows for budget airlines. The hordes of tourists flowing to Italy, France and Spain are packed in like sinners and shuttled to their beaches like a conveyor belt of shame. These holiday runs are busy throughout the year but in the height of summer and school breaks will be fully booked well in advance and more expensive. Excited children and inebriated revellers on budget airlines can make for a thrilling liveliness missing on regular flights or absolute hell, depending on your disposition. In addition to the big names covered above there are airlines specific to, or who specialise in serving the region. Clickair is a Spanish airline based in Barcelona and links much of Europe to Catalonia. Currently one of the rare budget operators to fly into London Heathrow Clickair is also in negotiations to merge with Vueling and if this goes ahead passengers should expect prices to fall even further as the enlarged company takes advantage of economies of scale. Flybe is a British airline that specialises in flying to Spain from regional airports in Britain. For those wishing to avoid a long trek to the airport before and after any holiday this is the airline to watch out for. In the South-East corner of Europe Turkey is just emerging as a big destination for budget airlines and is the home of such up and comers as Atlas Jet and SunExpress. SunExpress particularly focuses on joining German and Austrian cities with Turkey and is therefore a good option for Teutonic tourists seeking to escape to the sun.

• Eastern Europe airlines

While budget airline operations in south and Western Europe and have been driven primarily by tourism, in Eastern Europe they have been driven by the economic migrations that occurred following the accession of Eastern European countries to the EU in 2004. Once the transport links were in place they then led to a boom in tourism in Eastern Europe as cities that had been locked behind the Iron Curtain for fifty years finally opened up. Extending ever eastwards, Russia is now emerging as a player in the budget airline market, although because of strict visa regulation this caters almost exclusively to the newly rich Russian elites heading west to shop in London or Paris or sunbathe on the beaches further south. Wizz and Jet Air are Eastern European airlines primarily linking the cities of Hungary and Poland with the regions of the UK. These can offer great prices for tourists wanting to explore Budapest, Warsaw or Krakow and can be great as the opening or closing legs of overland journeys exploring outside the traditional tourist hotspots in the cities. Similarly, Air Baltic serves the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from its hub in Riga. Although it offers a useful network to travellers in the area, my main problem with Air Baltic is that it offers a budget airline service but charges legacy service prices. For those heading even further east again both KD Avia and S7 airlines operate to destinations in Russia from Western Europe. S7 is in fact a Siberian airline and so flies to Novosibirsk and onward to China for the budget travellers with large ambitions.

The airline market is particularly prone to sudden changes, be they price hikes because of world oil market fluctuations or prices falling because of competition on popular routes. The best advice to passengers is to use the internet to find as many options as possible, price comparison sites are useful in judging what airlines fly on particular routes but less useful for prices because of the commission they automatically add on. With the wealth of possibilities available the power should reside with the passenger, not the airline.

Picture taken at Paris CDG Airport originally posted by kygp