Is it cheaper to fly from Birmingham, Manchester or Heathrow?

[ethanegcc]

This is the third part of the 'price battle' series and, as suggested by some, I will be doing various destinations to see whether it is cheaper to fly from the UK regions (particularly BHX/MAN) than LHR?

This is mainly to determine whether people living roughly half way between airports would use the BHX/MAN direct flight or still pursue the overwhelmingly London centric attitude the UK has and use the traditional LHR option.

Destinations I thought would be useful to compare BHX and MAN with LHR:
New York, Toronto, Dubai, Doha, Delhi (BHX)

Destinations comparing MAN and LHR:
San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jeddah etc.

As I have been asked many times, I use google flights to find my prices and I will be using random dates (around Apr/May) but obviously on days that the direct flights operate from the UK regions.

First up will be Delhi (DEL) as the price battle threads have mainly revolved around MAN recently.

 

[Jerry]

Having looked at flight prices from BHX to JFK and EWR i would say LHR is cheaper direct because of the sheer amount of flights and the frequency. From the prices i've seen AA is very expensive and United is not too bad.
Some people might be prepared to pay United's prices but not AA's especially when you get flights sometimes a third cheaper from LHR for the sake of a 90 mins drive down a motorway.

 

[ethanegcc]

Having looked at flight prices from BHX to JFK and EWR i would say LHR is cheaper direct because of the sheer amount of flights and the frequency. From the prices i've seen AA is very expensive and United is not too bad.
Some people might be prepared to pay United's prices but not AA's especially when you get flights sometimes a third cheaper from LHR for the sake of a 90 mins drive down a motorway.

I don't think many people will be paying AA BHX prices for much longer unfortunately.

This is certainly one of the factors at play - the competitive market of LHR with high frequencies compared to BHX. However, we will still look into the prices.

 

[ethanegcc]

Birmingham or London to Delhi (DEL):

17th-21st April:

Birmingham to Delhi - £816 return 1 adult - one daily B788

London Heathrow to Delhi - £772 return 1 adult - two daily B788

Air India assessed.

The price difference isn't that significant to draw BHX catchment away from that service, however, if you wanted to depart in the morning then the LHR service will certainly be more attractive.

Overall: LHR wins on price and frequency, although the convenience of BHX service for locals will outweigh this

 

[Aviador]

If anything I'd say the Birmingham option would be more attractive, especially for those living North of the midlands perhaps looking for an alternative departure point to Manchester.

 

[User001]

With the best will in the world, I don't fully get what these threads are about.

I mean this in the nicest possible way, but comparing singular dates on routes is counter productive as airline pricing is so subjective, that one day LHR will be cheaper, the next it may be MAN or BHX. There could be a sale thrown in the mix, and online brokers could be subsidising their own deals and so on, which means a price shown may not be reliable.

The far better way would to do something like a tracked graph, look at the averages over the full year and then compare, such as the 'Skyscanner best time to buy' graph which tracks the price of a flight for you.

Like I say, I just think singular comparisons do not give the full picture of what's actually going on with prices and depending on the source used, could actually be misleading compared to another.

It was a nice idea, but one that needs much more of a controlled sample to ever be reliable.

 

[ethanegcc]

Well, clearly, I haven't been keeping this up, but actually many more comparisons are planned, including making use of google flight's 'price watch' scheme, which will provide a line graph and give me a basis on which to work out averages - which in turn will create a much better picture of the pricings of routes from the UK regions and from Heathrow.