Flights from Warsaw, Poland to the Northern UK are getting expensive - alternative suggestions?

I just booked some flights between Poland and the UK and was a bit shocked. These flights aren't around Easter or any public holiday although I didn't have much choice on the days I'm travelling.

- Ryainair Manchester to Modlin started from around £100 (and that's before their various extra charges and travel to Modlin/from Manchester).
- Wizzair Luton-Okęcie is similar (and again, trains to the North)
- Stanstead-Modlin is dear too except for the morning flights (useless if you're coming from the North)
- Warsaw-Doncaster is at awful times of day.

The most expensive were the ones between Warsaw and the North of England. Add on to that, the increasingly expensive train fares in the UK from the airports to wherever you're goung (I don't do coaches). LOT/BA sometimes have good prices, but only sometimes and only to Heathrow, which is a long way from God's Own County and a hassle of an airport especially when your flight comes in at the same time as some 747s with huge queues for security. Travelling to Scotland can be expensive and involves changes too.

It seems that the airlines haven't really caught up with the number of Poles, Brits and others travelling between the two countries. There's now a Norwegian Airlines flight (to I think Gatwick) but really the number is still small considering the obvious demand.

In the end, I found an interesting way. I'm not in a rush travelling out, so:
- A 23zl Wizzair flight to Eindhoven, a quick and cheap train journey from the airport to Amsterdam.
- Time for a pleasant afternoon strolling round the canals, looking at tulips and maybe a nice cup of coffee in a coffee shop, then
- Amsterdam to Leeds Airport on Jet2 (£40/220zl).

For the return journey I'm more time constrained so it's a cheap advance train ticket from the North to Luton and £116 (ouch) on Wizzair back to Warsaw. If there was more time, I'd have come back via Riga on AirBaltic (I did this last time, cheap, a quick transfer there and much more civilised than Ryanair) or Brussels. Bboth cheaper routes than Manchester/Liverpool - Warsaw.

Since quite a few of us here of both nationalitites make these journeys regularly, does anyone have any other interesting and moneysaving suggestions?

Is Lodz - East Midlands an option for you? Just checked for April, 340 zlotych return but before their various charges.

I'd looked at that one back in December and although I like £ódż Airport (small and user-friendly, easy queues and close to the city centre), East Midlands at Castle Donnington (the back of beyond) has poor transport links and together with the flight times and travel to £ódż would make a very long and uncomfortable journey. Same with Birmingham flights.

The £ódż-East Midlands flight would be great for someone travelling to Nottingham/Derby/Lincoln etc.

I just get the LOT flight to Heathrow and then hire a car.

If I remember correctly, the place you go to is much handier for Heathrow.

Bristol, Birmingham, Luton, Nottingham, even Cardiff are all nearer than Heathrow, but Heathrow has LOT fights and cheap car hire.

Birmingham and East Midlands are a bit nearer for me but the rest no - Bristol and Cardiff are a long way (my home in the UK is as near to Dundee as Bristol) Hiring a car isn't a possibility for various reasons. Luton is the most convenient on that list however a cheap flight there is not often that cheap nowadays - hence the thread.

I do somethimes use BA to Heathrow (occasionally very good deals on Club Class if you book in advance and once you've made your way round the optics in the VIP lounge and killed a few splits of champagne that covers the extra cost - plus the comfort's always appreciated) however the risk with Heathrow for me is that the queues for immigration are unpredictable meaning that I need to allow a lot of time for the train (therefore a lot of time to kill in a place I don't want to be) or buy a full price ticket for £124.

Using Momondo, there are sometimes some very creative journeys via Frankfurt or Schipol. A lot depends on when you catch them and still staggering really thet neither LOT nor BA fly direct to Manchester.

Didn't LOT used to have a flight to Manchester from Krakow?

I think they used to, however there's just a (not always so cheap) cheapie that leaves before 7am - not much cop when travelling from Warsaw. I've used Katowice a few times but am frankly sick of doing that when I live a tenner cab ride from Okęcie.

The Eindhoven route is going to be interesting and does give a little time to drink some coffee. I do recommend the Air Baltic connection though.

Just an update. I didn't do the journey in the end, due to being unexpectedly somewhere else not by choice however did it a month after. It worked beautifully.

There are also some interesting routes via Brussels and I hear that both Wizzair and Norwegian are expanding their Poland-UK services as planes/licensing comes available. A real supply/demand problem for Warsaw - Northern UK flights. A tourist I got speaking to had paid £170 one way on Ryanair. I didn't even know that was possible.

Wizzair removed the Liverpool to Katowice route last year despite the plane being full every time I flew. I think routes are being scaled back not increased.

Ah! The good old communist days. No limit on baggage, as many miniature Wyborowas as I could swallow, and in-flight meals :)
Cracking stewardesses too!


Such a shame that most of the ferries died. What happened to the Poland-Tilbury route? :) Lol. A Gdansk-Newcastle ferry would do me and the dog very nicely indeed.

There's a weekly Gdansk-Immingham sailing. Basically a cargo ship with some cabins. A very nice way to travel with meals in the officers mess and bar etc, though not that cheap and I'm not sure about pets.


At the moment Wizzair are expanding "organically" (according to their stock-exchange filing) - this means that they are opening up new routes around Europe but are constrained by how fast they can buy more planes - that may be the reason for stopping the Katowice-John Lennon route. But yes, a nuisance. They've increased the WAW-LPL and WAW-MAN routes though - and they aren't especially cheap anymore so demand must be huge.

Wizzair have a MAU for 110 A321 Neo 's. They will be growing massively, that's a lot of big aircraft.