Flights to Spain - cheap airfares, late deals, low cost to First Class

Planning your flights to Spain for that holiday or business trip? Check out the information on these pages. Spain's cities are extremely well served from cities in Europe, North America, South America and Africa. Literally dozens of airlines serve Spain's destinations. Flying to Spain has never been easier and never been more affordable in real terms.

As the biggest holiday destination in Europe, the tourist industry in Spain is highly developed with a massive infrastructure. Flights from Europe to Spain's commercial cities and Spain's holiday destinations pour in by the hundreds every day.

Drawn to the hot sunny beaches of the Spanish Costas (la costa is Spanish for coast), where it does not costa fortune to live, Spain is a massive attraction to the person escaping the cooler climes of Northern Europe. There is something for all tastes and budgets. What better way to learn Spanish, practise your Spanish language skills, or pick up a few Spanish phrases than in the warmth and relaxation on the the Costa del Sol (literally coast of sun).... or similar.

There are broadly...

Three main categories of airline flights to Spain

• Budget airlines - Low Cost Carriers like Ryanair and easyJet.
• Spanish Charter flights e.g. Britannia, Hapag Lloyd, Thomson, Thomas Cook, My Travel, Excel Airways.
• Traditional 'Flag-carrier' airlines e.g. British Airways, Iberia, Air France, Lufthansa.

Budget airlines cheap flights to Spain

Over the last ten years budget airlines, or low-cost carriers have exploded onto the aviation scene opening up more and more smaller airports all over Europe. The big names of these airlines are: UK based easyJet, Ryanair from Ireland, Air Berlin, Hapag Lloyd, Thomsonfly. Others have grown to quite a substantial size including BMI Baby, Jet2, JetConnect, Wizz.

With their cheap flights, they have literally brought cheap airfares to Spain to the masses. Back in the late 1990's if you wanted to fly from the United Kingdom to Europe, you would usually pay around £400 return for an economy seat. Now the low cost carriers have slashed these airfares so that flights from the UK to Spain, Germany to Spain, France to Spain etc can have airfares as low as a few pence or cents. Taxes of course need to be added, but everyone knows someone who has flown to Spain on a cheap airfare deal, for as low as ten pounds.

The impact of Low Airfares to Spain, has meant a huge increase in villa accommodation

One of the strategies of the low cost airlines is to build a high-frequency of flights to a destination. So for example a company such as easyJet will start flying a route with just one or two flights per day. Then it will start building up the number of flights between those particular city pairs. By keeping the airfares low, they build traffic on the route. Then they start building the frequency of flights. Soon the regular traveler gets to know that there are several flights a day to that destination, and the low cost airline soon becomes his or her airline of choice for that flight to Spain.

Then the competitor airlines get crushed, and guess what... up go the airfares! Make no mistake about this one... the 'low cost' carriers like easyJet, Ryanair and Air Berlin are powerful, efficient, profitable and ruthless businesses.

This has led many thousands of Northern Europeans to buy their own houses, villas in Spain and apartments in Spain. Many hundreds of thousands have left Northern Europe to settle in the sunnier, holiday climates of Spain. This further increases travel, because their friends and relatives then come to visit regularly, or use their Spanish villas.

Spain itself now has a low cost carrier called Vueling Airlines, which is based in Barcelona.

Charter flights to Spanish destinations

Spanish charter flights have traditionally been with charter airlines who would sell an all inclusive airfare that included hotel accommodation at the destination in Spain. These airfares would also include airport transfers from the client's airport to the hotel at the Spanish holiday city. Hotel rooms can be booked as full board, (where all meals, and sometimes all drinks are included), half board - where just one or two meals a day are included, and self catering, where the holiday maker would be required to feed himself or herself.

More and more charter airlines also now sell 'seat-only' travel to Spanish holiday destinations.

Some of the big charter flight companies with lots of flights to cities and holiday spots all over Spain are: Britannia, Hapag Lloyd, Condor, My Travel, Thomas Cook, Air Europa, Futura, Monarch, Excel Airways.

Business flights to Spain

These are the domain of the flag carriers, airlines like British Airways - BA, Lufthansa,Air France, Alitalia, Iberia, SAS, KLM etc. However the low cost carriers also have huge, and ever increasing amounts of business air travelers. Airlines like Ryanair often fly to 'less important' airports, which have less business travel, whereas the likes of easy tend to go to the major airports. For example Ryanair flies to Reus, some 50 kms distant from Barcelona, whereas easyJet flies directly into the main Barcelona Airport.

First Class flights to Spain

These are also pretty much the exclusive domain of the 'traditional' flag carrier airlines. These are the lines such as Lufthansa, BA - British Airways, Air France, Iberia, SAS, Alitalia, KLM etc.

Getting cheap flights to Spain on budget airlines

To get a cheap flight on a budget airline the trick is very simple. You must book as far in advance as possible. The closer you get to your departure date, the more the airfares increase in price. If you are after a last minute flight deal, the low fares airlines like Ryanair and easyJet, bmi baby, Jet2, are not the places to go. Fares rise as you approach the departure date.

Spain - Cheap airfares by charter airline

To get a cheap fare on the charter carrier is often the reverse. Prices for airfares on charter flights to Spain's holiday destinations often come down sharply in the days, and hours before the flight leaves. If you are able to travel at the last minute, there are terrific late deals to Spain to be had. One can book all inclusive deals which include airfares, hotels, airport transfers, food etc for very, very low prices indeed, and the writer has done so in the past.

Travel to Spain for the learner of Spanish language has never been so cheap and affordable, with so much choice!

After your flights to Spain you might need a Rental Car Hire in say, Alicante, Spain | Rental Car Hire - Malaga, Spain

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