Romania

[NUFC324]

Hoping to get a cheap return flight to Iasi which is on the North East coast. Does anyone know the cheapest option of getting there?

[Buenchico]

There are no direct flights from the UK to Iaşi. The only scheduled flights are from Vienna (with Austrian Airlines), Timişoara (with Carpatair), Budapest (with Mal�v Hungarian Airlines) and Bucharest Henri Coandă (with TAROM).

One possible route might be ex Luton, with Wizz Air, to Timişoara. (There are no other flights from the UK direct to Timişoara). Then onbound with Carpatair.

There are more options via Bucharest Henri Coandă. BA and TAROM both fly from Heathrow. (So you could probably book a through ticket to Iaşi with TAROM). Aer Lingus commence flights from Gatwick in late October.

The greatest flexibility, with the cheapest prices, might be via Budapest. easyJet fly there from Gatwick & Luton. Jet2 fly from Manchester. Ryanair fly from Bristol & East Midlands (also from Prestwick until 21/10/09). Wizz Air fly from Luton. BA fly from Heathrow. Mal�v Hungarian Airlines fly from Gatwick.

Alternatively, there are probably some cheap flights to Vienna. Aer Lingus fly from Gatwick. Austrian Airlines fly from Heathrow. They also fly (as Tyrolean Airways) from Edinburgh. (If Edinburgh is convenient for you, that might be worth considering, as you can probably get through ticketing to Iaşi). BA fly from Heathrow. easyJet fly from Gatwick & Luton.

The Thomas Cook Rail Map of Europe shows no rail lines in that part of Romania, so it looks like you'll have to make a two-stage air trip, using one of the combinations suggested above.

Chris

[Buenchico]

PS: I've just checked Mal�v's fairs, ex Gatwick. (They offer through ticketing to Iaşi). If you're prepared to spend a night, in either direction, hanging around Budapest Airport they offer a nominal fare of �50 each way. However that doesn't include taxes, charges and a service fee. The total return fare is actually �246.90. (That's based upon some random dates in September). For flights with better connections, the basic fare rises to �87.50 in each direction.

Chris

[NUFC324]

Thanks for this Chris, I'll look into these options. I live in the North East so was hoping to fly from Newcastle to maybe Bucharest and onto Iasi from there. Another option was getting a cheap flight to Germany (Frankfurt I think it was) and flying direct from there. I think like you said I can do this from Vienna also.

[Buenchico]

Thanks for the reply. Your username suggested you might be in the North East, so I particularly looked for routes from there but I couldn't find anything.

Your ideas don't seem to be viable because there are no flights from Newcastle to Bucharest, Vienna or Frankfurt:
http://www.newcastleairport.com/FlightInformat ion/Europe.htm
(There aren't any flights to Iaşi from Frankfurt anyway).

Your easiest route is probably with Austrian/Tyrolean Airways from Edinburgh, via Vienna. Unfortunately the Austrian Airways website doesn't offer through ticketing for that journey, so you'd have to contact the airline to see if it's possible.

Confirmation that the only route into Iaşi are via Vienna, Timişoara, Budapest and Bucharest can be found by checking all of the available flight schedules on the Iaşi Airport website:
http://www.aeroport.ro/index-eng.htm
(It won't take you long; the airport only receives a total of 7 flights each day!).

I've taken another look at the Thomas Cook Rail Map and realised I was incorrect when I stated that there are no rail services to Iaşi, but unfortunately most alternative airports are a very long way from Iaşi. The only ones reasonably nearby (with rail connections) are Suceava, Bacau and Chisinau (across the border, in Moldova). I'm not aware of any flights into Suceava or Chisinau which might help you but (if you can get to Luton) you could get a flight with Blue Air to Bacau, and then take a train:
http://www.blueair-web.com/index.php?LANG=EN

Chris