Alternatives to Zoom for cheap flights across the Atlantic
September 1st, 2008 by Tim Uden
Last Thursday Zoom Airlines ceased operation leaving 4500 UK passengers stranded and leaving thousands more travellers out of pocket with 60,000 forward bookings. It has also left a gap in the market for cheap transatlantic flights.
Air Transat, Canadian Affair and Scottish low cost airline Flyglobespan operate similar routes to Zoom and will likely fill Zoom’s place in the market although a handful of European airlines including Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, Condor, Eurofly and Martinair also offer cheap transatlantic flights. However it will be at least a year before we start to see really cheap flights across the Atlantic on Ryanair.
In April last year, Ryanair announced that it would start flying between London and the United States with one-way fares starting at £7 (around £80 after taxes, fees and other charges have been added). It has been over a year since this announcement as we’re still waiting for cheap transatlantic flights on RyanAtlantic (Ryanair’s transatlantic subsidary), which isn’t expected to start operations until next year at the earliest.
Like their European bases, Ryanair’s North American bases are expected to be in small regional airports. RyanAtlantic’s New York flights will most likely use Long Island MacArthur Airport (Islip Airport) and TF Green Airport near Providence, Rhode Island or Manchester-Boston Regional Airport are likely to be considered as a substitute for Boston’s Logan Airport.