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GGB 2010 award for best airline for bikes?

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With the recent announcement of British Airways’ first profits since nobody-knows-when and cyclists up and down the country planning winter training camps and European sportives it seemed a good time to provide our top rated airlines for bikes.

We’ve only included airlines which we have personally taken bicycles on and have created a unique set of criteria which is bicycle and cyclists specific.

Other lists might also consider cost and weight restrictions, but we know that an airline that goes on strike is not the best bet for getting you out to the Alps for a 3 day window of altitude training.

You would expect nothing less from us!

	Cost	Broken	Lost	Space	Locations	Food	Might strike
BA	0	A	B	31	B	Y	E
EasyJet	37	B	B	29	A	N	A
Ryanair	40	E	C	30	A	N	A
Air France	0	B	E	31	A	Y	E

The striking result (pun intended!) is that British Airways would be a clear winner if the risk of industrial action did not exist. However, as a result of that we would put BA only marginally ahead of EasyJet as our favourite airline for taking our bike abroad.

Ryanair has never claimed to anyone’s favourite airline and past experience with bikes is not great. They have a good punctuality record (perhaps that can be factored in next time) and they are very unlikely to go on strike. The latter cannot be said of Air France who offer a nice service and don’t charge for taking bikes on board.

The official 2010 Going Going Bike bicycle friendly airline award goes to British Airways.

Cost = charge to take bicycle on flight

Broken = A to E grade on likelihood of carbon fibre being snapped or alu frame being bent

Lost = A to E grade on chance of bike being where you want it when you arrive

Space = legroom in cms

Locations = A to E grade on whether airline services great cycling destinations

Food = free food and drink

Might strike = are the airline crew likely to go on strike