AirportFusion

Understanding estimates

Every number AirportFusion shows — flight prices, durations, taxi fares, door-to-door totals — is a statistical estimate, not a live quote. This article explains where each number comes from so you can use them with confidence.

Why estimates?

Live airline fares change by the minute, differ per date and booking class, and are only available at booking time on the airline's or agency's site. AirportFusion's job is different: it compares route options structurally — which airport pairs have direct flights and roughly what each door-to-door journey costs in time and money. Estimates are ideal for that comparison, because every option is computed with the same yardstick.

Flight estimates

  • Distance — great-circle (haversine) distance between the two airports.
  • Duration — roughly 45 minutes of taxi, climb and descent plus cruise time at about 800 km/h. A 1,600 km route therefore shows ≈ 2h45.
  • Price — a base fare plus a per-kilometre component (about €35 + €0.11/km), adjusted by a small stable per-airline variation. The same search always returns the same estimates — they will not jump around between refreshes.

Real fares can differ substantially, especially close to departure, on holiday dates or on monopoly routes. Use our price to compare options against each other, then check the real fare on the booking site.

Ground transport estimates

For each airport we estimate the trip between your address and the terminal:

| Mode | Speed model | Cost model | | --- | --- | --- | | Car | ~60 km/h average | ~€0.22/km (fuel + wear) | | Taxi | ~60 km/h | ~€2.50 base + €1.60/km | | Rideshare (Uber-like) | ~60 km/h | ≈ taxi × 0.85 | | Train | ~90 km/h | ~€0.12/km, usually one transfer | | Metro / urban rail | short trips only (< 30 km) | flat urban fare | | Bus | ~45 km/h | ~€0.07/km | | Carpool (BlaBlaCar-like) | longer trips only (> 50 km) | ~€0.06/km |

These are pan-European averages; a taxi in Oslo and one in Tunis will obviously differ. The point is a fair, consistent comparison between airports.

The door-to-door total

The total time and cost combine the fastest sensible ground option on each side with the flight leg. That is what the ranking uses — so an airport 150 km away is honestly penalised for its 90-minute ground leg.

The 0–10 score

Scores blend normalised time (40%), cost (40%) and simplicity (20%) within your result set. A score compares options in this search, not across all searches ever.

Rules of thumb

  1. Trust the ordering more than the euros. If route A scores 8.9 and route B 6.1, A is very likely the better journey even if both price estimates are off by 20%.
  2. Small differences are noise. Two routes at 7.8 and 7.6 are effectively tied — pick by airline preference or schedule.
  3. Always verify before booking. The partner site shows the real, bookable price; ours is a compass, not a receipt.
  4. Dates matter more than our model shows. For peak dates, expect real prices above our estimate; for off-season midweek travel, often below.