It's been about five years since the European Union, taking its cue from the deregulation of airlines in the US, began allowing airlines to set their own fares. It took awhile for airlines overseas to figure out how to fight airfare wars American- style, and even longer for low-fare carriers to start up.

But now Europe has its own menu of Southwest-like airlines that often fly into and out of secondary airports such as London's Luton or Stansted. Their passengers are growing accustomed to booking tickets on-line and not expecting pre- assigned seating or any frills on board.

This is great news for Americans who want to get around overseas cheaply. You can zip between London and Paris for about $50 each way in an hour; or between London and Barcelona for $70 each way.

But there's one problem for those of us trying to arrange flights from this side of the Atlantic: Finding the airlines, their routes, and their fares can be very difficult. How do you price an airline whose name you don't know and that doesn't pop up on general travel-sales web sites such as Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz?

I recently spent more than six hours cross-checking low-fare European carriers, trying to find a way to fly out of Edinburgh on a Friday morning in order to reach the south of France for dinner. A couple of airlines could get me from London to one of three cities near the region of Provence, but coordinating flight times and airports for the connecting legs was exceedingly difficult.

One airline's incoming flight just missed another's outgoing flight. Or I could get into one London airport, but I'd have to allow a couple of hours to get to another London airport to make a connection. I tried flying into Paris and catching a train, but I couldn't find a flight that would allow me to make a connection to the high-speed train to the south of France.

By the same token, I didn't want to pay more than $700 for a one-stop, one-way flight on Air France. I finally cobbled together an itinerary, but I'll be making three stops, leaving Scotland around 10 in the morning, and finally landing in Marseilles 10 hours later.

The Good News

On the positive side, if you can find an inexpensive carrier between two cities, you'll almost always save lots of money. The airlines mentioned in this article were built from the ground up to follow the manual written by Southwest Airlines. Almost all fly the Boeing 737, as Southwest does. All tickets are e-tickets, and on-line buying is rewarded with discounts. There's a minimum of food service--you may even have to pay for a soda on board.

While easyJet was launched by an entrepreneur--a 30- something Greek businessman who's since expanded into Internet cafes and rental cars--a couple of the airlines have distinguished pedigrees. Go was begun by British Airways, buzz and a sister airline, Basiq Air, are owned by KLM, which last month announced a renewed commitment to a low-fare strategy. Expect buzz to begin flying to Paris, and Basiq Air is increasing its destinations in the near future. Virgin Express, of course, is a spin-off of Virgin Atlantic, founded by the former record mogul, Richard Branson.

My guess is that we'll see more start-ups in Europe, and not all of them will survive--which would replicate the history of niche airlines in the US. As in the US, the pricing of seats on Europe's low-fare carriers is entirely based on demand. Click on to easyJet, for instance, and choose a sample itinerary. You may find six or seven flights in a given day, many at different prices. You'll probably pay less for a 6 a.m. departure than a primetime, 9 a.m. one. And, of course, as seats on a flight are sold, the prices on the remaining seats on that flight go up.

The Bad News

Here's the downside to flying most low-cost European carriers:

- They don't have inter-line baggage agreements with larger carriers. That means if you fly into Gatwick from New York on British Airways en route to Scotland on el cheapo easyJet, you can't check your luggage through. You'll have to collect your bags and go to the easyJet counter to recheck them. This means standing in at least two more lines--at the counter and at security.

- If you don't have a computer with a modem or have difficulty booking on-line, reservation agents may not be working when you want to talk to them. From 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time until 2 a.m., for example, Go's phone reservation agents are off duty. Fortunately, most European reservation agents speak English, but in most cases, you'll pay for an overseas call to reach them. Keep in mind also that you'll often pay more for a ticket using an airline's reservation agent than if you book on- line.

- If a flight is cancelled for whatever reason, a low-fare carrier may not have back-up equipment to get you to your destination. And they will generally not endorse your ticket to another airline, unlike the major airlines in the US.

- None of the primary European discount airlines (buzz, easyJet, Go, Ryanair, and Virgin Express) issue paper tickets. But since no other major European carrier will accept a low- fare airline's ticket, regardless, it doesn't really matter all that much if you don't have a paper ticket.

Tips to Keep in Mind

- Always use a credit card to purchase your tickets. That way, you'll get a quick refund if an airline goes out of business or your flight doesn't take off.

- Make sure your address tag on your bags has a contact that's easy for a European to figure out. "North Dakota," for example, might not mean much to someone in Lyon. If you have a European cell phone number or contact, put it on your luggage tag. Failing that, an e-mail address would helpful.

- Leave plenty of time for lines and to figure out your way around an airport. Get there early if you'd like to avoid a middle seat--few of these airlines offer advance-seat selection.

- Take some food if you're going to be making several flights with close connections; you probably won't find much more than a snack mix aboard Europe's low-cost airlines.

Giving It Away

Sometimes promotional fares on Europe's low-cost carriers are beyond belief. While in London on March 25, I opened the daily papers to find an ad promoting easyJet's new flights from Liverpool and London's Luton airport to Paris (beginning in mid June) at fares starting at about $26 each way. Another advertisement for Ryanair promised book-by-midnight fares from London to Dublin, Glasgow and Genoa for $13 each way; $28 to Eindhoven, Gothenburg and Shannon. Heck, the ticket for the train from downtown London's Kings Cross Station to Luton Airport costs $26!

Just the Facts: Who's Flying Cheaply?

- Aero Lloyd, 49-6171-625-200; www.aerolloyd.de; from 10 cities in Germany as well as Vienna and Salzburg, this German airline flies as far afield as Cairo, but often on a seasonal basis.

- Air Europa, 34-902-401-501; www.aireuropa.com; from Madrid, Air Europa flies to Caracas, Cuba, New York, all around Spain, and to London, Milan, Paris and Rome.

- Basiq Air, 31-20-406-0-406; www.basiqair.com; from Amsterdam and elsewhere in The Netherlands, this KLM- owned airline flies to Barcelona, Bordeaux, Madrid, Malaga, Marseilles, and Nice, with more cities to come.

- Bmibaby Airlines, 44-870-264-2299; www.bmibaby.com a bmi british midland spinoff, flies from East Midlands Airport in the middle of the UK near Nottingham, Derby and Leicester to Barcelona, Dublin, Faro, Malaga, Murcia (Alicante), Nice, Palma and Prague with internet fares as low as $37 each way. Ibiza will be added in mid-May.

- buzz, 44-870-240-7070; www.buzzaway.com; from London, buzz uses 50 aircraft to wing its way to Geneva, Helsinki, many cities in France, and several in Germany, Italy, and Spain.

- easyJet, 44-870-600-0000; www.easyJet.com; from London, cities served include many in the UK, as well as Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Geneva, Palma, Paris, Madrid, Malaga, Nice, and Zurich. In mid-March, EasyJet acquired Go, making EasyJet the largest discount air carrier in Europe. When the operations of the two airlines are merged, EasyJet will increase its reach into Italy and Spain. EasyJet also has an option until July 2003 to acquire Deutsche BA, Germany’s second-largest airline founded, like Go, by British Airways.

- Go, 44-127-966-6388; www.go-fly.com; out of London, go serves major cities in France, Italy, Spain, and the UK, as well as Copenhagen, Faro, Munich, and Prague. It’s not clear when it will cease to operate under its own name following its purchase in mid-May by EasyJet.

- Germania, 49-89-975-92350; www.germaniaairline.de from Berlin's Tegel and Frankfurt with plans to start service between Tegel and Munich, Berlin and Cologne, and Berlin and Bonn. Site is only in German.

- Ryanair, 353-1-609-7800; www.ryanair.com; from Dublin, fly Ryanair to many cities in the UK, France, Ireland, Italy, and Scandinavia, as well as Salzburg and Brussels. With more than 300 flights per day, Ryanair is the largest of the low-fare carriers.

- Spanair, 888-545-5757; www.spanair.com; flies within Spain and the Canary Islands, with six flights to other major European cities.

- Virgin Express, 32-2-752-0505; www.virgin-express.com; from Brussels, Richard Branson's airline flies to cities in Spain, Italy, and Scandinavia, as well as to Faro, London, Nice, Geneva, and Zurich.

The Major Carriers Strike Back

Call it the Orbitz of Europe. Just as several major US airlines began Orbitz.com to capture online buyers and offer a "preferred" avenue for selling last-minute, discount tickets, so, too, did a handful of Europe's major airlines begin www.Opodo.com. The new web site is owned by Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM, and Lufthansa.

Like its North American brethren, Opodo displays a lot of flights, but not all of them. And that's where the buyer-beware part comes in--don't count on Opodo to display many low-fare airlines' flights or prices, despite the fact the web site advertises, "350,000 special offers, 10,000 destinations, 480 airlines, one helluva time."

For example, I recently requested flights between Edinburgh and London, and Opodo came up with offerings on British Airways and British Midland only, not a helluva great selection. No mention of the low-fare airlines easyJet, Go, or Ryanair who fly that route and price most seats much, much lower than their bigger rivals. (US-based web sites like Orbitz don't list flights of the country's largest, low-fare airline, Southwest, because Southwest forbids it.)

Opodo is mostly useful for last-minute deals (displayed daily on the home page) and for learning which cities major European airlines serve. A recent check turned up $100 round- trip flights between London and Paris aboard British Airways, for example. There were also two Edinburgh-New York round trips for less than $400 via British Airways or Lufthansa.

To counter Opodo, EasyJet has begun its own web site that compares prices of flights on all airlines from the UK to Europe. Called www.easyvalue.com, it's the first ever website to compare--in real time--fares from 180 traditional and low cost airlines as well as charter airlines and online travel agencies to 230 destinations in 40 countries.

Discounts from the Big Guys

Europe's major airlines have deals on intra-European air travel for passengers from North America, but the offers are hardly advertised and almost impossible to find even on the airlines' own web sites. And you must generally purchase your ticket before departing the US or Canada. Often you must use the foreign carrier to reach Europe, as well, in order to qualify for the cheap deals.

For example, if you fly Air France (800-237-2747) to and from Europe, the airline will fly you to a minimum of three (and a maximum of nine) other destinations within Europe for only $120 per flight segment. (The price is $21 cheaper during off season.) Air France calls this its Euroflyer deal. British Airways (800-452-1201) has a similar program called the Visit Europe Pass. You must buy a minimum of two segments that are priced according to distance, beginning at $65. Again, to take advantage of these offerings, you must use British Airways as your airline to and from Europe.

Spanair, the Spanish airline, has an airpass for $79 per coupon within Spain and the Canary Islands. In this case, you don't have to fly Spanair overseas because you can't--the airline ended its one flight to North America (to Washington, DC) shortly after the events of September 11. From Spain, Spanair also serves Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Lisbon, Stockholm, and Vienna. You'll pay slightly more to buy an airpass for those longer flights--such as $109 between Barcelona and Copenhagen.

April 2002