I thought if you flew in or out of London the UK government subsidized the flight costs significantly, as a form of economic stimulus.
Hence Ryan Air has $14 pound flights to Berlin, and stuff like that. (been awhile since we lived in europe, so I could be out of date.)
At my age, and 20 years of flying on Southwest, if I ever got a chance to fly Virgin and it was $50 more, I'd pick Virgin. Historically Southwest has been my favorite airline and most flown airline, but I'm getting too old for the cattle car.
Seriously, the UK government does not give any money to Ryanair. Some local airports and tourist boards negotiate deals with them, but these are typically for marketing expenses and lowering of gate fees.
Its interesting that the major low cost American airline is famed for customer service, while the major low cost European airline (in fact, the biggest passenger airline in Europe) is also famed for (negative) customer service.
Typically the 14 pound flights are either terrible times or on a Tuesday, which tends to be the cheapest day to fly. Source - I've spent way too much time on the Ryanair website.
Hence Ryan Air has $14 pound flights to Berlin, and stuff like that. (been awhile since we lived in europe, so I could be out of date.)
At my age, and 20 years of flying on Southwest, if I ever got a chance to fly Virgin and it was $50 more, I'd pick Virgin. Historically Southwest has been my favorite airline and most flown airline, but I'm getting too old for the cattle car.