Cheap Flights With Skyscanner.Net

Posted by David Whitley Jul 3, 2007

Going to major international events and festivals is great in theory, but getting there can sometimes be an enormous pain in the neck.

Nowadays there are so many budget airlines out there, from Brussels Airlines to Windjet, that you never really know where to look first, let alone have a strong idea of who flies where.

This is where Skyscanner.net becomes an exceptionally useful tool. It’s a toy that I’ve only recently discovered, and for someone who makes cheap flights to random European destinations on a regular basis, it’s an absolute godsend.

Particularly useful for open-jaw trips, where you fly into one destination and out of another, travelling by train or bus between the two, the site accumulates budget airline cost and route information from across the world. The price comparisons are also excellent.

It’s also useful for planning impromptu city breaks – it allows users to search by departure airport and date, without having to put into a desired destination. This means it comes up with a list of countries that can be flown to on numerous budget airlines from your departure airport of choice. That’s great for when you just want to get away, but don’t know where you want to go.

The only criticism I’d level at the site is that it is fairly UK-centric, although it is rapidly-improving on this score, adding new airlines from Asia, Europe and the United States all the time.

It would also be nice to be able to put in a destination airport and see a list of possible departure airports (the main principle, but working in reverse).

These are minor niggles, though. And as a result, I’m now going to Glasgow for a friend’s house-warming party, flying there via Oslo, Norway and back via Riga, Latvia!