Booking flights from the UK

Charter flights

Charter flights are usually cheaper than scheduled flights but they are also more basic, generally have a lower baggage allowance and you will pay for drinks unless you pay quite a lot more for an upper class seat. Often, the meals are optional, in which case you will also pay for something to eat.

There used to be many more charter flights to Luxor. XL used to fly to Luxor on Mondays but went into administration in September 2008, so there are no longer any XL flights. Amongst the rest there have been lots of mergers, which have reduced the options.

Charter choices

Manos, Aspro, Panorama and Airtours were already part of MyTravel. MyTravel and Thomas Cook have also merged making all of those brands part of the same company. Thomas Cook have since closed the brands Aspro, Manos and Panorama. If you go to the MyTravel web site, or the web site of these or any of their other brands, your flight enquiry will be redirected to Thomas Cook.

First Choice have joined Thomsons as part of the Tui group. There are still flights under the First Choice brand and you might be allocated one of these if you book with Thomsons.

Monarch Holidays (previously known as Cosmos) are still independent and use Monarch airlines. Their flights are booked through Avro, the charter flights part of the Monarch (Cosmos) group.

Other companies go to Luxor, but they use one of these airlines. For example, VJV have packages to Luxor, but they do not sell flights on their own. They buy seats from one of these charter airlines, usually Monarch.

Thomson have traditionally been the most popular choice, because their seat pitch is the most generous and their food is reputed to be good. However, since the merger with First Choice, many flights tend to use First Choice rather than Thomson's planes, and these are generally regarded less favourably. Monarch have tended to have a poor reputation for quite a while. Based only on feedback, Thomas Cook tend now to be the preferred airline. There are links to companies providing direct flights to Luxor in the column on the right.

Flights Direct to Luxor
From:	Birmingham	Gatwick	Heathrow	Manchester
Chartered services
Cosmos / Monarch / Avro (whichever of these you book through you will get a Monarch plane)		Mondays		Mondays
First Choice (you might also get a First Choice plane if you book with Thomson for a Wednesday flight)		Mondays
Thomas Cook	Wednesdays	Wednesdays		Wednesdays
Thomson (you might get a First Choice plane)	Wednesdays	Wednesdays		Wednesdays
Scheduled Services
Egyptair / BMI (services may be provided by either airline under a code share arrangement)			Mondays

Scheduled flights

Scheduled flights are generally more comfortable and you get free meals and drinks, but they are also usually more expensive than charter flights.

Egyptair and BMI are both members of the Star Alliance, a group of airlines that share some services. If you book with one, you may be flown by the other. The same flight may have two flight numbers, one an Egyptair flight number (beginning MS) the other a BMI flight number.

Egyptair / BMI are the only scheduled airlines that fly direct from the UK to Luxor. They fly from London Heathrow (terminal 3). The frequency of fights varies through the year. For much of the year there are only direct flights on Mondays. When this flight is full, and for the rest of the week, you will be offered a flight via Cairo.

Other scheduled airlines fly via a European stopover and via Cairo but you will need to transfer to Egyptair to continue from Cairo to Luxor. If you want to go to Cairo for a day or two en route to Luxor, British Airways, Iberia, BMI, KLM and Al Italia are amongst your options in addition to Egyptair / BMI.

To look for a scheduled flight to direct Luxor or a flight via Cairo, click on the BMI logo to go to their web site or try one of the flight brokers. They will list the options and costs for the day of your choice. Probably the best known is Lastminute.com but there are others and they all list much the same options, usually at very similar prices. Click the logos on the right to go to the web site or the broker of your choice.