Cheapo Transatlantic flights coming

Exciting news for us and for whoever wants to come and visit the Mega-Mart in person.

Right now it looks like Marty and I will be here for years--like maybe three, four, even five?--now that we both have secure jobs that we enjoy. More importantly, the goal of saving up for a nest egg to come back with is looking farther and farther away. Because of some painfully expensive and urgent surprises this month, we had to overdraw both bank accounts (UK and US) this week. As soon as we get paid Saturday, we'll be fine again for day to day expenses, but point is, it's going to take a lot longer than we thought to save up to come back to the States. Sad, really. I sorely miss going to parties and impromptu hang-outs with old friends.


I'd pretty much give my least useful limb--you know, the left arm--to go home for a visit. Here's something that is making me happy these days. A new law is set to be signed in Washington this month that will open up the historically restricted transatlantic flight route, meaning more competition and thus cheaper flights. Below is an Irish airline that is saying it is ready to jump on the band wagon and offer flights between US and Europe for $24 round trip! The law doesn't take affect until next year, but it would be sweet if all the talk of cheap flights comes true while we are still here. Now we just need to get time from work...

Ryanair’s O’Leary may launch E.U.-U.S. airline

Michael O’Leary, CEO of Dublin-based Ryanair Holdings Plc, may start a no-frills transatlantic airline once the U.S.-E.U. “open skies” agreement takes effect next March, according to Bloomberg News.

Dublin-based Ryanair, which operates routes within Europe, plans to double its service by 2012, O’Leary noted. “By mid-2009, we will be carrying 70 million passengers at 23 bases across Europe,” he told Flight International magazine. “It will be relatively straightforward for us to do a deal for 40 to 50 long-haul aircraft and connect these bases transatlantically,” charging fares as low as $12 one-way.

The new carrier would serve five or six secondary U.S. airports, such as Baltimore, T.F. Green Airport and Long Island’s Islip Macarthur, the magazine said. But don’t hold your breath. Though the idea is “a possibility,” airline spokesman Peter Sherrard told Bloomberg today, “there would be a three- or four-year timeframe, and it would be completely separate to Ryanair.”

Other low-fare carriers also are considering dipping into the transatlantic market, Bloomberg said. Canada’s Zoom Airlines, controlled by Scottish entrepreneur Hugh Boyle, yesterday said it will introduce transatlantic flights for $255 and up, starting June 21. And U.K.-based BMI said last month that it “expects to announce shortly details of its first USA service from Heathrow.”