Originally Posted by
lhrsfo
That's the point. The flight is short, you will be stting in similarly sized seats in broadly similarly sized tubes. You'll either be given refreshments or be offered them for purchase.
The differentiator is the departure airport and the travel to it, which will take longer than the flight and, potentially, cost more. LCY and LHR are cheapest to get to by Tube / DLR. the others varying degrees but much more expensive
(My bolding.)
I'd suggest that in many cases, the cost difference in getting to the various (non-LHR & LCY) airports is somewhat shadowed by the cost difference in the actual flights.
The cost of travelling to these airports is greater, but it isn't astronomical.
The OP mentioned LGW, and that the Air Lingus flights were half the price of other's he'd looked at. I'd say that's a good option. The security process there has been improved greatly in recent years.
The fare from Victoria to Gatwick via Southern trains (not Gatwick Express) is £15.40 single, or if travelling off-peak (in this instance, after 09.30 weekdays or any time at weekends) then with the Groupsave discount of a third-off, four people would pay £40.60.
You can also use Oyster or contactless for travel to Gatwick now - if you travel on Southern or Thameslink trains (not Gatwick Express) the cost is £8 off-peak or £14 peak (which for Oyster/contactless means journeys starting on weekdays between 0630-0930 and 1600-1900).