Disneyland Paris adds EasyJet as a recommended airline

Addition of airline

If you subscribe to the Disneyland Paris mailing list when you book a trip on http://disneylandparis.co.uk you’ll of got an email in the last few days letting you know that EasyJet have been added as a recommended airline for the resort.

Previously this status had been limited to Air France, Flybe, and British Airways.

When booking online with DisneylandParis.co.uk the addition of 20kg of baggage is already included, along with all airport tax, and ATOL protection.

Routes

For those of us in the UK, it adds more flights to the current routes as well as adding both Luton and Liverpool to the official booking engine.

EasyJet also brings in a range of routes to Charles De-Gaulle Airport (closest to Disneyland Paris) from across Europe.

UK Airports: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Luton, Bristol, Liverpool, Belfast

Cost/Time/Analysis

Living in Scotland certainly has its perks but travelling to Disneyland Paris is not one of them. There is no Eurostar, nor a ferry, car is a bit too long a journey, and plane tickets are always more expensive than our Southern UK brothers.

EasyJet certainly introduces a cheaper option to one of the main travel streams to Disneyland Paris. Lets have a look at how the pricing works out on a purely hypothetical trip:

Tuesday September 3rd 2013 to Friday September 6th – From Edinburgh to Charles-de-Gaulle, based on two adults flying economy.

• EasyJet: £226.54
• Air France: £301.00
• British Airways: No direct route.
• Flybe: Codeshares with Air France (Same flight, slightly more expensive).

As you can see, possibly not as cheap as could be expected!

The EasyJet flights run 3pm -> 6pm outward, 5:30pm return. (5 flights weekly)
AirFrance Flights run 6am -> 9am outward, 8:30pm return. (4 flights daily)

We can see from the times that based on arrival time, including about an hour to get to Disneyland Paris from the airport (baggage claim, TGV, hotel check in) you’d at best get in the parks for 7pm EasyJet and 10am Air France, so unless in Summer Season, you’d loose a day in the parks with EasyJet but would still have to pay for it.

With return times, 5:30pm isn’t terrible as you’d get the mornings and lunch in the park before having to leave. Air France obviously affords you the entire day in the park, but would be pushing it for night time entertainment.

So for £75 extra, or £34.50 a person, going Air France there’d be an extra day and half in the magic.

If we look at the year view and go far in advance, say November, we could easily get the Easy Jet price down to £170 for two people return, especially if we don’t care about exact dates, at that point the cheaper flights may be worth it!

Across the UK it does seem any savings in price with a new low cost option are outweighed against pretty poor times for travel, however perhaps more competition on these routes may stir up some even cheaper pricing.

Your thoughts are always welcome 🙂

Sources: Disneyland Paris Email, http://visit.disneylandparis.co.uk/how-to-get-there/easyjet.xhtml, http://www.easyjet.com/routemap, http://www.easyjet.com, http://www.airfrance.co.uk, http://www.ba.com, http://www.flybe.com