Airlines are the winners in charging inflated one way air fares to the thousands of Romanian and Bulgarians expected to arrive in Britain next week after the EU will allow unrestricted immigration to the UK.

Immigrants face prices of £600 to £900 for one-way flights to London.
That is six times the cost of flying in the other direction from London.
From January 1, new arrivals will enjoy unrestricted access to the UK as curbs imposed in 2005 are lifted.

A British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Sofia, Bulgaria, on Monday, January 6, costs just £145 one way compared to £899 per person for passengers travelling in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, on easyJet, flights from London Gatwick to Sofia start at just £49.60 on January 1, rising to £72.41 on January 5, one way.

But flights from Sofia to London Gatwick cost more than double, with prices starting at £101 per person one way on January 1, rising to £283 on January 5.

Both British Airways and easyJet denied they were cashing in on demand from migrants.

A British Airways spokesman said: “We offer a range of different fare structures across our network and flights from London will normally be different from flights to London.

“This applies across the 75 countries we serve and is not specific to Romania or any other single route.”

An easyJet spokeswoman claimed the airline had no “evidence of significant increases to our passenger numbers from January 2014 on these routes”.
She said: “We remain committed to providing easy and affordable travel for our passengers and we advise people to try to book as early as possible to get the cheapest fares.”