Open Skies Brings Down London Airfares As Airlines Flock To Heathrow

The bargains to London, especially on flights to Heathrow, are far lower than other popular destinations in Europe including Paris, Amsterdam and Rome. Almost every U.S. airline which was previously denied landing rights to Heathrow has now added it to their international route system, over Gatwick airport.

This new increase in competition at Heathrow has made London one of the hottest bargain base-airfare destinations in Europe for spring travel, in spite of the fact that London has one of the highest fuel surcharges in Europe at $242 roundtrip on most major U.S. airlines. Madrid and Barcelona come in a close second place as a great travel bargain this spring, in some cases offering even lower airfares than London. On some routes, Paris is also a better buy than many other European destinations.

Prior to the Open Skies agreement, only British Airways, Virgin America, American Airlines and United Airlines could offer nonstop service to London Heathrow. This forced any other European or U.S. based airline who wished to fly between the U.S. and England to use alternate airports such as London Gatwick, London Stansted and Manchester airport.

"Today, the mad rush is on to add Heathrow service. American Airlines and British Airways have switched their Dallas to London service from Gatwick to Heathrow. American plans to abandon Gatwick service altogether when it switches its Raleigh to London service from Gatwick to Heathrow. Even Air France is now offering nonstop Los Angeles to Heathrow service" - states Parsons.

"Continental Airlines has previously sold nonstop tickets to Heathrow through a codeshare agreement with Virgin America. While they will continue this partnership, they will also be adding several flights of their own to Heathrow" - adds Parsons.

Listed below is a summary of new transatlantic flights into Heathrow:

"With more airlines competing for Heathrow traffic, we expect airfares to London during the peak summer months to remain the cheapest in Europe, with airfares as much as $200 to $500 roundtrip less than other destinations" - advises Parsons.

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