Travel Question: Why are flights to Philadelphia from Manchester so expensive?

Q Can you explain why identical flights from the UK to Philadelphia are a staggering £400 more expensive from Manchester than Heathrow?

Name withheld

A I agree the fares on American Airlines’ nonstop service from Manchester to Philadelphia look expensive. I made a test booking for a week’s trip on the route in August, and the nonstop return fare on American Airlines was around £1,150. The one-stop via Heathrow on the same days was £850 – the same price gap as you found.

It gets worse. Suppose you took that Manchester-Philadelphia flight but changed there for Los Angeles? Again, the overall return fare again falls to £850, even though that journey is almost 5,000 miles longer.

So why should you pay hundreds of pounds more for flying thousands of miles less? Because for people who need to get from northwest England to Pennsylvania’s biggest city, the nonstop flight taking a shade over seven hours is a very desirable product – saving hours of travel time compared with the alternatives. So American Airlines can command a premium on the route. But once you start looking at one-stop options, whether from Manchester to Philadelphia or Manchester to Los Angeles, lots of competition comes into play. Aer Lingus competes on the former (and offers US pre-clearance at Dublin), while Virgin Atlantic can offer good service and fares on the latter with its partner, Delta.

Don’t think “Oh, I’ll just book the Manchester-Los Angeles flight and hop off at Philadelphia,” because as soon as you “no-show” for the onward trip to California, your entire booking will be cancelled.

Instead, look at flying from Manchester to Newark, the second New York airport. United Airlines will take you there and back in August for around £850. And there are plenty of direct trains from Newark airport’s rail station to downtown Philadelphia, taking as little as an hour for $53 (£42) each way – so you’ll still be making a substantial saving with very little time penalty.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder