Originally Posted by
cgtechuk
We got stung as we never realised in the Belgium case that although they say Brussels they dont tell you that its actually a smaller airport at the opposite side of the city that needs a bus and a train to connect to. Therefore we were €25 + €10 each to get to the other airport which then evaporated any cost savings we had originally made by not booking with BA. The hidden non flight costs that are associated with RyanAir are worth considering.
I am no expert on the remoteness of some of the cities which Ryanair calls a city, but calling Charleroi "Brussels" is about the same as calling Luton or Stansted airport "London" airports.
The big difference is that there is significant public transport at both the London airports, with express (though expensive) trains into the centre. Charleroi's transport seems to be Ryanair taking you by bus for a signicant price, and slower (it used to be to an irish pub in Brussels too).
However, if you start quantifying in the fact that you might well be paying for the fast and expensive route from somewhere from normal airports, like LHR or FRA, even the cheaper ones such as BRU there is 9 euros single from the airport. So it's a tad unfair to pretend that the other airport is a costless journey to the centre of town...