A few years ago, flying from London to Wales, or East Anglia to Scotland, would have been beyond the means of most holidaymakers. But now that cheaper rail fares have to be booked weeks in advance, and so much of the network is afflicted by engineering work at weekends, has the plane become a decent alternative?
It's certainly faster and, as the fares below show, it can be cheaper (although airports are more expensive to get to than train stations). All ticket prices are returns for travel April 25-27. The rail journeys were researched on thetrainline.com. Some of the airfares quoted have to be booked direct - not all airlines are sold by the likes of Expedia and ebookers.
Norwich to Aberdeen
flybmi.com, £153.70
This is not a journey you'd want to undertake by rail. Not just because it's outrageously expensive (£107) but because it takes a cramp-inducing nine hours. Eastern Airways (eastern airways.com) also flies the route (£253) and has tickets for the even more inconvenient journey from Southampton to Aberdeen (£228).
London to Edinburgh
flybmi.com, £79
Again, flying beats the train: the cheapest rail fare on this route was £84, and the return journey on Sundays takes more than five hours. BA (ba.com), Lufthansa (lufthansa.co.uk ) and Scot Airways (scotairways.co.uk) also fly this route. Flybe's Birmingham-Edinburgh service is a bargain at £82 ( flybe.com): it takes just over an hour and is only £3 more expensive than the train.
London to Newquay
ryanair.com, £93
A decent alternative to the Great Western service (£68), which takes almost six hours to reach the Cornish surfing town. BA also flies to Newquay, but tends to be considerably more expensive. The new Ryanair route to Blackpool starts on May 1 and promises to be cheaper still (from £60).
London Luton to Manchester
now-airlines.co.uk, £80 (bookable from May)
You'd have to be in a serious hurry to make this flight worthwhile. But although the rail journey is relatively affordable (£50), BA, bmi and the soon-to-be-launched no-frills airline Now all fly there from London.
Cardiff to Edinburgh
bmibaby.com, £155 Paying an extra £50 will save you six hours on the train. Air Wales (airwales.co.uk) starts flying from London City airport to Cardiff and Swansea at the end of this month from £19 (plus taxes) each way; the only drawbacks are that you can't book online and the plane lands in Cardiff first, so you have to take off and land twice to reach Swansea.
