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Prepare Yourself
Finding Flights
If you are lucky a few organisations will pay for the cost of your flight as part of your commitment to volunteering with them for a specified length of time, however, most volunteering organisations will require that you make your own flight arrangements. Given that many volunteer locations are in the remoter corners of the world these flights can turn out to be rather long and expensive and so it should be important to you to spend a little time trying to find both a combination of the best routing and best price for the flight where you want to go.
As we have already mentioned in parts of our guide you should certainly use some flight price comparison sites like Kelkoo in order to get an idea of which airlines
fly to your volunteer destination and which seem to offer the best prices. There are two further points you should also consider that may affect your decision which airline to use. Firstly, the length of the journey. SOme airlines may appear cheaper but the journey could take a lot longer because you have to change planes at various
points along the way. Some airlines also have maintenance and fuel stops so do check before booking your flight as these too can lengthy your time spent flying to wherever you are going. Secondly,
Whatever you do, finding and buying your flight should be one of the first things you do, because generally (but not always) flights become more expensive the nearer it comes to your departure date so ideally you should be getting this out the way as soon as you are able. When searching for different flights you may need to know airport codes. All airports have a three letter code by which they can be identified so for example, London's Heathrow airport is LHR. When searching for flights on the internet it can be very handy to have these available. We have listed some of the main airport codes below relevant to volunteering abroad which hopefully may be of help to you.
Some airport codes
United Kingdom
- Liverpool - John Lennon = LPL
- London - Heathrow = LHR
- London - Gatwick = LGW
- London - Stansted = STN
- London - Luton = LTN
- Manchester = MAN
Europe
- Austria - Vienna - Schwechat International = VIE
- Belgium - Brussels = BRU
- France - Paris - Charles De Gaule = CDG
- Germany - Berlin - Berlin Tegel/Otto Lilienthal Airport = TXL
- Germany - Dusseldorf - Dusseldorf International = DUS
- Germany - Frankfurt - Frankfurt International = FRA
- Germany - Munich - Munich International = MUC
- Italy - Milan Malpensa = MXP
- Italy - Rome Fumicino = FCO
- Netherlands - Amsterdam = AMS
- Spain - Barcelona = BC
- Spain - Madrid = MAD
Africa
- Botswana - Gaborone - Sir Seretse Khama Intl = GBE
- Cameroon - Douala - Douala International = DLA
- Cameroon - Yaounde - Nsimalen International = NSI
- Democratic Republic of the Congo - Kinshasa - N´Djili International = FIH
- Gambia - Banjul - Banjul International = BJL
- Ghana - Accra - Kotoka International = ACC
Asia
- Bangladesh - Dhaka - Zia International = DAC
- Cambodia - Phnom Penh - Phnom Penh International = PNH
- China - Beijing - Beijing Capital International = PEK
- China - Chongqing - Chongqing Jiangbei International = CKG
- China - Shanghai - Pu Dong International = PVG
- China - Shanghai - Shanghai Hong Qiao International = SHA
Central and South America
- Belize - Philip Goldson International Airport = BZE
- Bolivia - Santa Cruz - Viru Viru International = VVI
- Bolivia - La Paz - El Alto = LPB
- Brazil - Brasilia - Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International = BSB
- Brazil - Rio De Janeiro - Galeão–antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport = GIG
- Brazil - Sao Paulo - Aeroporto Internacional Guarulhos = GRU
- Colombia - Bogota - Aeropuerto Internacional El Dorado = BOG
- Colombia - Medellin - Enrique Olaya Herrera International = EOH
- Costa Rica - San José/Alajuela - Juan Santamaria Airport = SJO
- Costa Rica - San José - Tobias Bolaños International = SYQ
- Ecuador - Quito - Mariscal Sucre Airport = UIO
- Ecuador - Guayaquil - Jose Joaquin de Olmedo International = GYE
- Guatemela - - Guatemela City - Guatemala City La Aurora International = GUA
North America
USA
- Chicago - O'Hare International = ORD
- Dallas - Fort Worth International = DFW
- Los Angeles - International = LAX
- Miami International = MIA
- Newark - Liberty International = EWR
- New York - John F Kennedy = JFK
- Philadelphia - International = PHL
- San Francisco - International = SFO
- San Diego - International = SAN
- Seattle - Tacoma International = SEA
Canada
- Montreal - Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport = YUL
- Ottawa - Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International = YOW
- Toronto - Toronto Lester B Pearson International = YYZ
- Vancouver - Vancouver International = YVR
Australia and New Zealand
Australia
- Adelaide International Airport = ADL
- Brisbane International = BNE
- Canberra International = CBR
- Darwin International = DRW
- Perth International = PER
- Sydney - Kingsford Smith = SYD
New Zealand
If you have any comments on this section, or perhaps have other ideas for advice that could be included here, please do not hesitate to contact us so we can pass it on to others.