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. Sometimes 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. However, there were lots of mergers in 2007, which has reduced the options. This has also reduced the competition and the discounts.

Charter choices

Manos, Panorama and Airtours were already part of MyTravel, but MyTravel and Thomas Cook have also merged making all of those brands part of the same company. If you go to the MyTravel web site, or the web site of 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.

XL have their own flights, which can be booked direct or through the flight booking part of XL, called Freedom Flights.

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.

In short, you can now choose between Thomsonfly / First Choice, Thomas Cook, XL and Monarch flights (bookable through Avro). The table shows you who flies from where in the UK, and when.

 

Charter Flights to Luxor
	Birmingham	Gatwick	Manchester
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	Wednesdays	Wednesdays	Wednesdays
XL		Mondays
Please note: XL only fly to Luxor November - April

 

Be careful when comparing prices. Taxes are normally included now, but you usually have to go a few stages into the booking process before you know whether there are other charges to add. Only then can you compare like-for-like. It is best to do that before committing yourself to buy tickets.

Scheduled flights

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

Egyptair is the only airline that flies 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 Sundays. When this flight is full, and for the rest of the week, you will be offered a flight via Cairo, sometimes operated through BMI.

The other scheduled airlines fly via a European stopover or via Cairo, where there is frequently a long wait for a connection. So as well as costing a fortune they take an age to get there. However, if you want to go to Cairo for a day or two en route to Luxor, Egyptair, British Airways, Iberia, BMI, KLM and Al Italia are amongst your options.

To look for a scheduled flight, it is quickest to use one of the scheduled flight brokers who 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 at very similar prices.Some of these brokers have a vested interest, for example Opodo is owned by a group of airlines including BA. Although it is not so well advertised, and therefore not such a household name, we have found flight.co.uk returns a wide choice of options at competitive prices and are worth a look. Click the logos on the right to go to the web site of the broker of your choice.