On 6 May 2026 you could fly on Emirates from London Gatwick to Dubai, returning a week later, for £552. The fare includes meals, drinks, state-of-the-art inflight entertainment and a checked baggage allowance of 30kg aboard an Airbus A380 “SuperJumbo”.
Or you could choose Air Arabia from Gatwick to Sharjah airport, just 11 miles away, for only £417. In return for reducing the fare by a quarter, though, you have no complementary catering nor checked baggage allowance. Food and soft drinks are available for purchase, but not alcohol. And travellers will be confined within an Airbus A321 – an aircraft more normally used for three-hour hops to the Mediterranean.
