Ryanair has been placed second after Turkish carrier Pegasus Airlines as the cheapest airline in Europe when comparing the basic fare without fees.
Research by flight search engine WhichAirline.com shows that when the total fare is counted, including checked baggage fee for 20 kg bag, the cheapest carrier is Pegasus Airlines with a total average price of €64.64, followed by Air Lituanica (€81.36) and Vueling (€97.24). Ryanair comes in at 6th place at €100.67.
Only four out of 34 European low cost airlines came out with an average fare including fees under €100.
The average flight with fees operated by Czech Republic-based Smart Wings costs €215.54, making it three times more expensive than Pegasus and more than twice the price of Ryanair.
Asia boasts the cheapest airlines in the world with Malaysian airline Firefly offering the lowest fare including checked baggage fee at €30.49 – less than half of the price of the cheapest European airline Pegasus.
Firefly is followed by SpiceJet (€52.24) and Onur Air (€55.70). AirAsia comes in at fourth place with €60.13, popular Asian airline tigerair is ninth with €72.54.
In the world comparison, Pegasus comes in at seventh place, while Ryanair is 19th. The average prices were calculated from more than 3.2 million prices of flights searched by users of the website.
WhichAirline.com said: “Travelling low-cost can be a minefield with all the companies trying to ‘offer’ you extras. These optional features can cost you a fortune and their real value is questionable.
“Priority boarding, for example, will not make your journey shorter. You will spend the same time waiting for your flight, just more of it in the aircraft itself instead at the gate.
“And finally, try to fit everything into hand baggage and pay with a debit card, as payment with credit cards often leads to extra transaction fees.”