London-bound passengers get more flights for less

In the bad old days, there were two ways to get from Dublin to London. You could pay a ransom-type fare to the Aer Lingus/ British Airways cartel that controlled the air route, or take the grotty mail boat-train. Your choice, therefore, was to arrive in London either broke or exhausted and hung over.

Competition, and Ryanair, changed all that. The price of fares dropped rapidly, and passenger numbers soared. Now, there are five carriers vying for your custom, and you can get to London and back for around £70 without too much difficulty.

Travellers who must get in or out of England in a day, or those who cannot stay a Saturday night, will wind up paying more, but even these fares are good value compared with 15 years ago.

The mail boat is no longer with us. True, the trip from Holyhead, by bus, train or car, still takes many hours, but the old boats themselves have been replaced with clean, efficient, high-speed ferries.

Price, however, is not the only consideration for travellers; other aspects come into play, such as frequency of flights, location of airport, quality of service and the conditions which apply to each ticket.

Perhaps the first question to ask yourself is what is your final London destination.

If you are going to Kensington, Chelsea or an exhibition at Earl's Court, for example, then Heathrow, with its connection to the Underground's Piccadilly Line, is the handiest airport. The disadvantage is, of course, that passengers from Dublin arriving at Heathrow have to manoeuvre their way through thousands of miles of corridors before reaching the exit.

For the City, or the East End, CityJet's flights to London City Airport are handy, with a free shuttle bus from Liverpool Street station. Stansted also feeds into Liverpool Street, and is useful for Arsenal of Spurs fans, or anyone visiting north London.

Gatwick, to the south of the city on the M23 and with an express train into Victoria, is also useful for anyone headed to South London. It also tends to be used by travellers as a jumping-off spot for trans-Atlantic and other long-distance flights.

Luton, far to the north-west of London, shuttles passengers by bus, then train, to Euston station, which is near King's Cross and Baker Street. There is also the issue of flight frequency. Apart from convenience, and the likelihood of a cheaper ticket being available, if something goes wrong and you miss your flight, you may be willing to pay whatever extra is required to get the next one.

Here, Ryanair (21 flights a day) and Aer Lingus (17 a day) score best, with CityJet and British Midland (eight flights a day each) next, and British Airways' franchise, called City Flier Express, running just four flights into Gatwick a day.

Another aspect of travelling, even on such a short journey, is the quality of the service. Passengers should be aware that Ryanair's "no frills" policymeans that if a flight is delayed or cancelled, there is unlikely to be any free hotels or meals.

Aer Lingus, British Midland and CityJet all stress that they offer a full service, including meals. City Flier Express, run on behalf of British Airways, benefits from its marketing as "the world's favourite airline".