The low-cost airline Easyjet offers six-hour flights from Manchester to Aqaba (Jordan) for 14,99 euros. Mathematically, you only ask about 2,50 euros per flight hour. However, only a small piece of hand luggage is included.

Aqaba is located on the Red Sea and has been a popular vacation spot in the past. The Israeli city of Eilat is in the immediate vicinity. Excursions between the two states are possible, but associated with exorbitant border control fees. Eilat and Aqaba airports are more or less built next to each other and are visible to the naked eye from the respective other airport.

The Simpleflying.com portal writes, among other things, that it is to be expected that Easyjet will have to raise prices. One of the reasons for this is that due to the long flight duration, the aircraft used can only complete one cycle per day. For outward and return flights, the medium-haul jets are in the air for at least 12 hours.

Low-cost airlines tend to strive to complete as many legs as possible per day. The more the plane flies, the more money it makes. However, cheap offers in this region are not exactly unusual, because Wizz Air, for example, has repeatedly offered flights to / from Eilat for just one euro.

Region known for high subsidies

Of course, the question quickly arises how that should pay off, because even if passengers buy all sorts of extras, it becomes economically complicated due to the long flight duration from Vienna. But the explanation is simple: Both in Eilat and in Aqaba, low-cost customers in particular are attracted by lavish subsidies that are paid out per passenger. In Israel this has been around 80 euros per capita in the past. Some lowcosters have therefore "optimized" the number of passengers with the help of particularly cheap offers in order to ultimately be able to attract more subsidies.

The grantors shouldn't really care, because the more guests are brought to the region, the more money ends up in the coffers of the hotels and tourist businesses. The state then profits again from taxes, if levied.