In the quest to enter Europe for budget travel, Ireland has become one of the best starting points.
Ireland is more than an airport portal. It has attracted and captivated visitors for centuries. Clearly it earns the distinction as a popular and desirable destination.
But Ireland also provides opportunities for travelers who want to continue to continental Europe.
Ireland offers a useful combination of affordable flights to and from North America, and excellent connections with Europe's budget airlines. In fact, the largest such airline, Ryanair, has its hub in Dublin.
Here's an illustration of how Ireland figures into flight itineraries for budget travelers. I looked for Los Angeles-Budapest in November using mid-week arrivals and departures to keep the cost low. The search revealed a low fare of $917 USD through Swiss International Airlines.
But booking Los Angeles-Dublin and Dublin-Budapest through Aer Lingus and Ryanair respectively totaled $712, a savings of $205.
Note that the Aer Lingus fare of $591 between Los Angeles and Dublin was part of a special offer. Your search without the offer could well prove to be more expensive. But Aer Lingus has been offering quite a few sale fares in recent years. Don't forget to check other airlines, too.
The segment from Dublin to Budapest in this search was only $121 round trip on Ryanair. But Ryanair has competition from a number of budget carriers serving Ireland.
Germanwings, for example, offers an attractive $200 USD round trip fare to Istanbul from Dublin. Using the Aer Lingus sale fare from Los Angeles and the Germanwings fare to Istanbul, you could fly Los Angeles-Istanbul for $791. The cheapest round trip fare in this search for that route was $904 on Delta.
Again, this was a one time search. Your results will vary, perhaps greatly.
There are plenty of potential gateway hub airports serving Europe, and the Irish connections are not always going to be the cheapest. You should search London, Paris and Amsterdam. Each is served by an array of budget carriers.
But Europe-bound budget travelers (especially those with somewhat flexible travel dates) often find it's worthwhile to spend a few minutes searching Irish airfare connections, too.
Once you arrive, you'll find at least six budget airlines serve Ireland and Northern Ireland:
Easyjet competes with Ryanair across Europe, but serves only Belfast. Easyjet claims to maintain 380 routes and serve about 50 million passengers.
Flybe connects Dublin with a host of European neighbors, including the UK, France, Spain and Portugal. According to its Web site, 7.5 million annual passengers traveled on the airline's 190 routes.
Germanwings serves Dublin and is based in Cologne/Bonn. It has 65 routes and about 8 million passengers a year.
Ryanair serves Belfast, Cork, Dublin and Shannon. It offers more than 800 routes across 26 countries, connecting 146 destinations and claims annual passenger counts of about 67 million.
Skyeurope serves Cork and Dublin. It is based in the Czech Republic and its Web site says it was voted Eastern Europe's best low cost airline by SkyTrax Research. Annual passengers total 3.7 million.
Wizzair connects Cork with four Polish airports. One way fares to Warsaw are as low as 60 EUR ($85 USD).
