hisandhers,

Try Bmi, Flybe or BA (Manchester), they are the two main airlines linking regional airports to Heathrow. Expect to pay around £70-80 return.

Darren

Thanks Darren, will check it out. It does seem alot of money though when you can go abroad for cheaper

Will let you know

You have to remember London, particularly Heathrow and Gatwick are major airports for connections around the world as well as the main business centre for the UK. Fares reflect it. It might be worth trying some of the price comparisson websites, and travel websites like Expedia, Flighline, Cheapflights etc.

Darren

From Leeds - FlyBE to gatwick. It will probably be quite a bit more from Leeds though.

its not as cheap as I thought. With there being 6 of us then it is cheaper to go on the train. Thanks anyway.

It may come in handy another time so thank you for your help both of you

Those dates are currently about a 7-10 days too far in advance to get train seat reservations - which means you can't get a price on cheap Advance tickets. See http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/booking_horizons.html for dates which are open.

From West Yorkshire to London Kings Cross - East Coast or to St. Pancras try East Midlands Trains.
From Manchester to Euston is Virgin.

Always try enquiries in different ways with/without local connections. If the operator has set up the link you might get the local connection from your nearest staion for next to nothing if booked through, unfortunately this doesn't happen as much as it used to so you might only get full prices shown and have to split the booking to get the best price. To get times and price use http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/s/planjourney/query - after finding the times it lets you add the passenger details to get the prices (scroll down). If you get in on the day they release the cheap seats you could get Leeds-London for £22.50 return.

And in defence of the airlines, part of their fare is the costs at the airport. If you want to put a 737 down a runway the airport isn't really bothered how far it will go after take off, the charge will be pretty much the same.

Edited at 13:30 to correct my hopeless maths!!