A flight search prices the journey from one airport to another. Your trip starts at your front door and ends at your family’s home, which may be hundreds of kilometres from where the plane lands. For NRIs those two ends can account for a fifth to a third of the cost, and more of the time. This calculator prices them.
Choosing the departure airport
In a large country you often have a choice of airports. Take a family of four in Leicester. Heathrow is about a hundred miles away, with direct flights to most Indian gateways. Birmingham and East Midlands are much closer, but usually mean a connection that adds four to six hours. The nearer airport saves on the drive; the further one saves on the day.
Parking can tip the balance. Three weeks in a long-stay car park at a major UK airport costs hundreds of pounds, often more than the fuel or taxi it replaces, and most large UK airports now charge for drop-offs too. The calculator compares driving and parking, being dropped off, taxi, train and coach for each airport.
How luggage changes the answer
A family of four going to India for three weeks might easily travel with six checked cases. That matters in three ways:
- The vehicle. Four people fit in a saloon; four people and six cases need an MPV, which costs roughly half as much again, at both ends. In India it is the difference between a Dzire and an Innova on a long transfer.
- The options. Coaches allow about one case per passenger and enforce it. The coach is usually the cheapest line, so the calculator flags it when your luggage rules it out.
- The airport. If you drive and park, the car park is the main cost, so the bigger airport with a direct flight usually wins. If you take a taxi, the fare grows with every mile, and a nearby airport can beat a distant hub even with a dearer ticket.
Extra bags on the flight are shown as a separate line. An extra case each way costs a significant sum on UK–India routes, and more from Australia.
The last leg in India
Only a handful of Indian airports receive flights from the UK, the US or Australia. If your family lives a few hundred kilometres from the nearest one, the last leg is a real choice:
- Drive. An outstation car is priced differently from a city taxi, because the driver has to return empty and charges for it.
- Take a domestic flight. Often a few thousand rupees each, and it can save most of a day, but it means another airport and collecting and rechecking your bags.
- Stop overnight. Most long-haul flights from the UK, the US and Canada land in India in the early hours, often between 02:00 and 06:00, so the road leg starts in the dark, at a night rate, after a long flight. With elderly parents or young children, a night near the airport can make sense.
For a family the drive often wins on cost and loses on time. The results show both rather than picking one.
From the Gulf and Singapore
From Singapore there is one airport. From the UAE there is more choice than people expect: Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi are within a couple of hours of each other, and Sharjah is often cheaper on low-cost airlines. The Indian end is the same for everyone, although flights from Dubai and Singapore are short and mostly arrive in daylight. The UAE has no postcodes, so you choose an area from a list instead.
Using it with the budget calculator
This tool prices the journey, not what you spend once you arrive. Gifts, weddings, meals and shopping are covered by the
cost of trip home calculator
. If you are planning treatment while you are there, the
medical travel guide
covers what procedures cost. Compare the cost of sending money ahead of the trip on our
INR converter
.
Estimates are for budgeting only. Check flight fares against a live search before booking.
