A massive number of Americans are planning to cross the Atlantic in the next several months, to take advantage of a stronger U.S. dollar (and weaker Euro). But while they will all enjoy the lower cost of traveling within Europe, they will commiserate about the high cost of flying to Europe from the U.S.
Some of these avid travelers will chance upon a low air fare after an hour or two of searching various aggregators (Kayak.com, Do-Hop.com, Momondo.com, CheapOAir.com, Expedia.com) for an occasional flight that hasn't sold well and is therefore reduced in price. Others will consult such lesser-known sites as FlightDeals.com, Travelation.com or ITAMatrix.com, which deliberately search out the low transatlantic fares that some airlines have either mistakenly or improvidently or even deliberately listed for the trip. Still other budget-minded folk will fly to Europe via awkward indirect flights, stopping en route and changing planes on airlines that lower the price to persons willing to inconvenience themselves by making one or more (sometimes lengthy) stops en route.
But I will claim that the smartest of these cost-savers will utilize four cheap airlines that have made a conscious decision to charge less than the usual price for a transatlantic crossing.
(1) Norwegian Airlines (www.norwegian.com/en) is the newest and most impressive of the budget-priced means for crossing the ocean to Europe. An initiative of business people in a rich European nation (Norway enjoys unique oil wealth), it has been feverishly purchasing brand-new planes as if it possessed unlimited wealth, and after entering the field with flights from the U.S. to the Scandinavian capitals, it has more recently announced that it will be greatly increasing its low-cost services from both New York and Los Angeles to London (it has already begun flying to Paris and elsewhere on the continent). If you will go to its website (see above), you will find that you can often fly between New York and London for as little as $600 and $700 round-trip (and for correspondingly low prices from Los Angeles), considerably less than others charge. Bear in mind, of course, that such ultra-low-cost fares aren't available on every date, and you may have to adjust your travel plans accordingly. But if you choose the right combination of flights on Norwegian, you can cross the Atlantic round-trip for hundreds of dollars less than others charge.
(2) On more limited routes, a little-known but well-established Italian airline called Meridiana (www.meridiana.it, it's headquartered in Florence, Italy) is now offering low-priced flights non-stop between New York City and Palermo, Italy. Meridiana flies that route in spring, summer and fall, and though not all of its departure dates are at bargain rates, a majority of them are, dipping as low as $548 round-trip between New York and Sicily. Using those bargain rates, you arrive at the logical starting point for a colorful vacation in Sicily, traveling on its coastal highway to Agrigento, Siracusa, and Taormina, before returning to Palermo and home.
(3) To many more European gateways, a relatively new (four years old) Icelandic airline called "WOW" (accessed at www.wowair.com) is permitting Americans to fly cheaply to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Berlin from Boston and Baltimore, provided they're willing to stop in Reykjavik, Iceland, en route. On several of its onward flights to Europe, immediate connections are made (though, occasionally, an overnight stay in Reykjavik is required). Still, through a careful selection of dates and routes, you can reach Europe for considerably less than the $1,200 or so that you now pay round-trip on major carriers, to reach Europe from Baltimore and Boston.
(4) And finally, the rich Middle-Eastern airline called Emirates flies you from New York to Milan, Italy, non-stop, for considerably less than standard carriers would charge. That's the only European gateway it presently services at low cost, and the greatly-reduced introductory fare may be withdrawn once Emirates' services to Milan are better established.
All in all, the cheap options for reaching the Old World are fairly limited, but they will cut the cost considerably for persons willing to devote the time and effort to find an occasional budget-priced flight.