News: Champions League Flights Tips
Flights > News > # 533 (25/08/2005)
Suggestions on finding flights for the Champion's League.
Group B (Arsenal)
Getting flights to Amsterdam and Prague to see Ajax and Sparta respectively
should not cause fans too many problems.
FC Thun
Thun is situated near the popular sports destination of Interlaken. The nearest airport is Berne, which is served by daily flights from London City, although capacity here is strictly limited.
Zurich is the closest major hub, although high airport prices will make these flights even more expensive than most football flights. The main low cost hubs worth considering are Geneva and Basle.
Both Geneva and Zurich airports have railway stations inside the terminals, offering direct trains to Berne, from where frequent local connections are available to Thun.
Liverpool and Chelsea have been drawn in the same group (G), with away games to play in Seville (Real Betis) and Brussels (Anderlecht).
Group D (Manchester United)
Lisbon (Benfica)
Portugalia offer flights from Manchester to Lisbon, although these can be
expected to fill up very rapidly. The nearest low cost alternative is Faro,
although this is still a good 2-3 hour drive from Lisbon. Thousands
of fans travelling to England games in Euro 2004 chose to either base themselves
on the Algarve, or to find flights to Malaga and drive onwards from there.
Paris (Lille)
LOSC Lille are playing their Champions League home games at the Stade De France
is Paris. A good range of flights to Paris is available from Paris, although
there might be cheaper flights from Liverpool.
Valencia (Villareal)
Villareal is much easier to reach due to Jet2's Manchester to Valencia flights,
which started in March. This route ends on 30th October. If flights to
Valencia are not available, other options include Alicante and Murcia, although
Barcelona and Reus are also worth a look, especially for fans wanting to get
to Villareal by train, as Alicante and Murcia are not well connected by rail.
Group G (Chelsea and Liverpool)
Brussels (Anderlecht)
Whilst flights to Brussels are reasonably easy to arrange from London, the city suffers from a lack of no frills competition, due to a combination of high charges at the main Brussels National hub, and the row over alleged subsidies for Ryanair's base at Charleroi. Eurostar is likely to offer the best option for fans from London, whereas Liverpool fans have fewer choices following Ryanair's withdrawal from their flights to Brussels.
Whilst direct flights from Manchester to Brussels are available, these are never cheap. Whilst VLM offer connecting flights via London City, DIY no frills connections could be made using a roundabout route via Dublin. Ryanair have expressed an interest in re-opening their Liverpool to Charelroi route, and the possibility of the airline laying on special flights should not be discounted.
The easiest way to get from Liverpool to Brussels is likely to be to fly with Easyjet to either Amsterdam or Paris, and make onward train connections from there, using the excellent Thalys service.
Seville (Betis)
Flights to Seville are not so easy to come by, with only Ryanair operating this route on a no frills basis, combined with scheduled flights from British Airways / Iberia from London Heathrow. The obvious option would be to find flights to Malaga and pick up a hire car at Malaga airport, although Faro (Portugal) might also be worth a look.
Seville is not an easy city for parking, especially in the centre, where the Real Betis stadium is situted. Fans from Liverpool might want to consider using Easyjet's regular flights to Madrid. The high speed AVE train reaches Seville in just over two hours, although getting fom Barajas airport to Atocha station can be an expensive taxi ride or an arduous slog through the Madrid metro.
Group H (Glasgow Rangers)
Bratislava (Artmedia)
Bratislava has recently attracted extra flights from London, but reaching
the Slovak capital from Glasgow is not so easy. Prague might sound like the
obvious option, but the Czech and Slovak capitals are still some distance from
each other. Ryanair's new flights to Krakow in Poland might also be worth a
shot, depending on match dates.
Porto
Finding flights from Glasgow to Porto is probably the biggest challenge for
the group stages of the Champion's League. Although regular flights are available
to Faro, the Algarve is at the other end of the country, requiring a long drive
to reach Porto. Connecting flights via London are likely to be the only real
option here.
Milan (Inter)
The easy one here is Milan, which is served by daily Ryanair flights from Prestwick. Ryanair use Milan Bergamo airport, which is only 1 mile further away from the city centre than the main Malpensa airport. This is generally a better option than using British Airways' flights from Edinburgh or Glasgow to Milan, as these are usually routed via Birmingham.
Add to:
