Why it's more expensive to fly into London - here's where to land instead

Whether you're thinking about visiting family over the holiday period or planning ahead for a Europe summer in 2025, here's something to consider that could save you a little bit of cash.A travel expert has shared that London, a preferred destination and starting point for many Aussie travellers, may not be the best choice of entry for a Europe visit.Mark Trim, founder and managing director of Flat Beds shares that travellers can make big savings by choosing another point of entryREAD MORE: Travel experts reveal seven must-visit places in PeruAirports "can adjust inventory and prices relative to demand trends they see and London continues to see high levels of demand", Mark reveals.Why is London so expensive to fly to and fromLondon is usually selected as the destination port from Australia as it's seen as cheap and convenient, but the city actually sets a premium departure tax (of $450, note it's about to increase again by $40 from 1 April 2025) that other ports of entry don't have."This premium on London fares is seen by nearly all airlines, although it is situational depending on dates, demand and the stopover/transit point," he adds.READ MORE: Top ten cities around the world with the best year-round climatesThe tax in question is the UK Air Passenger Duty and it's important to note it's not just from London."This is significantly more than other countries which can be as little as $30-100. Premium cabin passengers, on flights ex-UK that are over 5000 miles, pay around $450 in departure taxes," he says.So the savings, especially if you're travelling in premium economy, business or first class can really add up if you choose to land somewhere else.The cheapest places to fly in EuropeMark shares major continental hubs such as Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Munich can result in significant savings in premium cabins.Others such as Helsinki, Istanbul and Zurich are also great options."You typically see significant fare savings and better availability which can range from several hundreds to sometimes thousands of dollars depending on the airline and specific scenario," he notes.For example, with Finnair Flat Beds have been selling return business class fares to Helsinki as cheap as $5,800-6,500, when London has been upwards of $7,500-8,800 [considering Qantas is regularly $10k+ on the Kangaroo route].Savvy travellers could stop in Helsinki, add in another stop/visit to their trip, pick up a cheap economy flight or use points to London and still be over $1,000 better off per person.Similar scenarios can exist to Frankfurt with ANA or JAL, or using Milan, Frankfurt or Paris with Oman Air where they are all significantly cheaper than their London fare levels.Of course the price difference may not balance out the additional travel costs (by rail for example) needed to get to where you actually want to go. But it's worth looking into.When asked whether there were particular times of the year, or even days of the week, that could offer more savings, Mark says not necessarily.If you can, avoid the peak season."You could say that the 'peaks' are elevated even more so for the UK, especially Christmas, due to the number of people wanting to visit family and potentially booking and paying with a higher element of emotional attachment," he adds.