On 28 August 2012 06:29, WereSpielChequers <werespielchequers(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
No, travel costs are not a purely geographic thing.
London is an unusually
central location for the world's airlines, and also has a number of budget
airlines with many routes. If everyone was driving across Europe to
Wikimania then it would be logical to hold it somewhere near Crackow or
Bratislava. But if most people are flying and many are doing so from cities
that don't have major international airports then London is unusually,
perhaps uniquely well connected.
Flying costs vary somewhat with distance, but more with competition,
number of connections needed and standard of airline. There are
disadvantages to budget airlines that don't allocate a specific seat and
charge extra for baggage in the hold and even food, but they are usually
cheaper. I know a family that have decided never to fly RyanAir again after
not being able to get a block of four seats for two adults and two small
children. But it is very cheap for one adult flying alone with just a
weekend bag and no preference as to where they sit, and I suspect that
describes the typical Wikimanian.
It all depends on where you are coming from, really.
Coming from the USA, Lisbon is no worse (and usually cheaper) than London.
South America; Spain is easiest.
Russia, Northern & Eastern Europe are often better served through Germany.
Africa generally runs through Paris,
Middle East/Asia/Eurasia often go via Dubai (a massive hub) which has
strong connections to London - so from those areas London is usually the
best choice.
In my experience of air travel; London is cheaper if you are on a long haul
flight into the capital. If you fly to another EU hub and short haul from
there it can get very expensive (if flying to the EU then onto the UK it is
usually cheaper to go to another UK airport).
But at the end of the day - most places will have these costs. Getting to
Washington probably cost a LOT for those travelling from Asia for example.
Tom