Has anyone been charged an extra £90 to fly to Benidorm from Birmingham instead of Manchester?

I have two people who booked their summer holiday through a well known local travel agent and have been charged a £90 difference because they are travelling from different parts of the country. The one flying from Birmingham is being charged the extra.

How can this be possible Birmingham is closer to Benidorm than Manchester!

Any thoughts would be appreciated..

Supply and demand, Birmingham is a smaller airport and has less flights despite its huge catchment area. It has less than half the passengers than Manchester.

They have tried to get a second runway built at Birmingham to increase its capacity considerably (it would be able to handle over three times the Manchester traffic) but it never came about.

So if more people used the smaller airports the prices would come down.

Why should we be paying a supplemented price to fly from our local airport.

I am contacting the travel agent tomorrow to give us a clearer explanation.

It would be cheaper to travel upto Manchester from Birmingham and fly from there.

Its the shortage of flights that is the problem, too many passengers and not enough flights - which means they can increase the price and people still pay it rather than travelling to Manchester.

Sometimes if its a package holiday it is dearer because the package company doesn't have the same discount negotiated for the different airports/airlines or price is based on their own chartered flight, if they are purchasing single seats at another airport it is going to be dearer.

Their game, their rules I guess.

Just been on to the airline that's handling the flights and whichever way you look at it you will be paying a supplement from the smaller airports.

Thanks for your feedback on this, I have passed on the information.

Hotel rooms are going fast out in Benidorm for this summer.

Watch for the new series coming in the new year.

Personally, I'm off the Isle Of Man..

I need to go back sometime but accommodation prices put me off and I don't think I have any relations left there. Beautiful place, enjoy yourself.

Jfyi...was looking at trains to amsterdam from lime street and surprised at only approx 7 to 8 hours journey time. Return prices varied from around £120 to £200 plus. Cheaper end comparable to flying but with a bit more scenery. Megabus and national coaches good value but take ages.