Cheap Flights To Luxembourg

A business city, home of banking, European politics and upmarket tourists, Luxembourg has decided that it doesn’t want to see the downside that Tallinn and Riga have.

Tourist information office

While I was in Luxembourg a few months ago, I had an interesting chat with a man who works in the tourist information office. I’d asked whether there are any budget airlines that fly into the country, and he explained why there are none.

Business city: banking and European politics

Luxembourg is very much a business city, whether that business is banking or European politics. It also attracts a more upmarket brand of tourist than many European cities. This means that people going there are willing to pay for it (or, rather, get their company to pay for it).

Budget airlines and cheap flights

Whilst some cities have benefited enormously from budget airlines operating cheap flights to them, others have seen a downside to it. The likes of Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia, for example, have seen a huge surge of tourists heading over there largely to get drunk on cheap beer. Luxembourg, it seems, doesn’t want that.

National carrier Luxair

There is also the matter of protecting the national carrier, Luxair. Many of Europe’s flag-carrying airlines have struggled as the skies have been opened up to competition and some – such as Sabena in Belgium – have gone out of business altogether. Luxembourg figures that the benefits of preserving the national airline far outweigh the benefits of getting more flights and more tourists into the country.