KevC

The wife and I are planning a three-week holiday to Australia in late October this year - hopefully to convince her that emigration would be a positive move - and I've been looking at prices/flights online this afternoon, but I'd like to know if there's any reason why all the flights out of Manchester now seem to route through Gatwick and Heathrow???

When I went to Australia in 02/03 I flew direct from Manchester to KL and on to Sydney (with Malaysia) and I can't seem to find anything similar now. Don't really want the hassle of two changes, and living in Yorkshire I don't want to have to get a train to London and mess about getting to Heathrow that way, so does anyone have any advice? Is there any way around it? Do any airlines offer direct flights from Manchester to Sydney these days??

Tips on good places to look to book would be appreciated too!

Centurion

Singapore Airlines fly MAN to SIN and then SIN to SYD.

www.singaporeair.com

FilSheff

Try Emirates too - they fly Manchester-Dubai and then onwards to Sydney.

Only direct flights to Sydney from the UK are from Heathrow I'm sure.

Grayling

There are no direct flights.....they all stop somewhere on the way.

the_spread

Ask about the cost for a connecting flight to LHR from Manchester as part of an onward flight to Sydney the cost is often quite small.

ponyrama

Etihad also offer one stop flights through Abu Dhabi to Sydney. Most major airlines pulled out of flying direct (well one stop) from manchester and you now have to go through Heathrow or another major Europe airport such as Paris or Frankfurt.

The other thing you could look at is to go via America.

Try www.kayak.co.uk or www.traveljungle.com - I always found them the best search engines for flights in UK - but always check price against airlines own website before you book.

donovandenese

hi - from Yorkshire your best bet is Emirates from Manchester or Newcastle (changing in Dubai), or Singapore Airlines from Manchester (changing in Singapore). Emirates quite often have flight sales on where you can get a good price flight. Theres also the option of KLM from Humberside Airport connecting in Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur (the second part of the flight is with Malaysian Airlines).

I'm also from East Yorkshire and have used all the above options over the years. We've also flown from Heathrow, and find that the extra time spent getting to Heathrow and back really adds to the trip (and the jetlag!) Connecting flights down to Heathrow aren't really an option from East Yorkshire without first having to hike across to Leeds or Manchester, it was actually much easier to go to Amsterdam from Humberside airport with Klm than to Heathrow.

we've booked flights with the airlines direct (on their websites) and via expedia.co.uk and ebookers.co.uk. I usually try all the different websites as prices seem to be different on each at any given time.

FilSheff

What I meant was you don't have to get off one plane and onto another. Of course you have to refuel somehwere.

KevC

thanks for the replies. found some from manchester with singapore airlines this morning that look quite good - only an hour or two stopover each way. hadn't thought about doing humberside-amsterdam or via america, will investigate those ideas a bit further. cheers all.

Fabienne

Kev if your going via america dont forget you will need their new on line esta visa see linkhttp://www.esta.us/travel_authorization.html?gclid=CI2Mrc7VuZkCFQESzA odY0_GSA, it is free despite many web sites saying it is NOT. I have travelled many times with Emirates and I find them better than many, Dubai with all the bus transfers can be a pain, Singapore is much more civilised and I think this is my No 1 airline particularly when your travelling so far, Happy Travels

seayork2002

We went through Thomas Cook (It was year ago though) and went Manchester - Singapore- Sydney with no "London" stopping through Singapore airlines.

seayork2002

I have been from Manchester-Heathrow-New York-San Fransciso-Sydney non stop to save money only to spend it on a hotel in Manchester (also took 36 hours - so I don't reccomend it), it was with United/BM and great airline. Also have been Teeside (MME)-Amsterdam-Singapore then onto Sydney, with KLM not a good airline.