Flying within Europe? Your airport can double the fare

Which airports are cheapest to fly from in Europe?

London Luton, Milan Malpensa, Barcelona and London Stansted were the cheapest airports for flights within Europe in the fares we checked between August and September 2026, at 29–38% below the typical airport flying to the same places. Helsinki, Oslo, Zurich and Munich were the priciest, at 19–36% above, so the same trips cost about twice as much from one end of the table as from the other.

Everyone has a default airport, the one you type in without thinking. This guide is about whether yours is costing you.

Treat it as a snapshot, not a law of nature. Over seven weeks we checked 48,619 fares from 57 European airports: the everyday price of the same trip on the weeks around each deal we found, not the deals themselves. Fares move and budget airlines come and go, but the pattern held in August and again in September. Where you live you can’t change. Which airports you check, you can.

The ranking: cheapest and priciest airports

Each bar compares an airport with the typical airport flying to the same destinations, the middle of the pack. −38% means the same trips cost 38% less.

CheaperPricier

1. London Luton−38%
2. Milan Malpensa−37%
3. Barcelona−35%
4. London Stansted−29%
5. Milan Bergamo−24%
6. Rome Fiumicino−22%
7. Madrid−19%
8. 18 airports in between, all within 12% of typical
9. London Heathrow+13%
10. Frankfurt+15%
11. Bucharest+15%
12. Prague+17%
13. Paris Orly+18%
14. Munich+19%
15. Zurich+21%
16. Oslo+35%
17. Helsinki+36%

The 18 in between

• 6–12% cheaperLondon GatwickPortoNicePalma
• About the same (within 5%)ViennaBerlinParis CDGManchesterHamburgDublinBrusselsLisbon
• 7–12% pricierCopenhagenStockholmDüsseldorfAmsterdamAthensEdinburgh

Return fares from each airport against the typical airport flying to the same destinations (at least 10 in common), checked 8 August – 28 September 2026. Also cheap, on fewer destinations: Lyon (−22%), Marseille (−22%) and Nantes (−20%).

Oslo and Helsinki are partly paying for geography: everything is a long way from the top of Europe. Zurich, Munich and Frankfurt have no such excuse. Allow for distance and they look worse, not better.

Heathrow, Stansted or Gatwick? London’s airports compared

If Heathrow is your default for a week in Europe, that habit is costing you. On the 27 destinations we checked from both, Stansted was cheaper on 25, by a typical €110. Luton and Gatwick beat Heathrow too.

Departures from London, flights within Europe

Airport	Fares vs typical
LutonLUTON   44 km north-west of the centre	−38%−38%
StanstedSTANSTED49 km north-east	−29%−29%
GatwickGATWICK 40 km south	−12%−12%
HeathrowHEATHROW23 km west, the closest	+13%+13%

Between the three budget airports it’s close. Stansted edged Gatwick by about €20, and Stansted and Luton came out even. In our deals it flips, and Gatwick edges ahead. So check all three and take whichever is easiest to get to.

1. Stansted vs Heathrowcheaper on 25 of 27 destinations€110 cheaper
2. Luton vs Heathrowcheaper on all 11 destinations€95 cheaper
3. Gatwick vs Heathrowcheaper on 22 of 27 destinations€42 cheaper
4. Stansted vs Gatwickcheaper on 24 of 41 destinations€20 cheaper
5. Manchester vs Heathrowcheaper on 17 of 27 destinations€13 cheaper
6. Stansted vs Lutoncheaper on 7 of 15 destinationsAbout even

Typical (median) difference in the everyday return fare, on destinations both airports fly to, checked 8 August – 28 September 2026.

Heathrow isn’t a rip-off everywhere. For long-haul it’s about average, so don’t write it off for a long trip. That’s in our long-haul airport guide.

Malpensa vs Bergamo: which Milan airport is cheaper?

Milan Malpensa (MXP) beat Milan Bergamo (BGY) on 16 of the 20 destinations they shared, by a median €24. Both are a trek from the city, so if one is clearly easier for you, €24 isn’t worth the extra bus. If they’re equally annoying, start with Malpensa.

Either way, Milan is one of the cheapest places in Europe to start a trip. Malpensa beat Rome Fiumicino on 34 of 44 shared destinations, by €27, and Zurich on 28 of 29, by €80. (We don’t check Milan Linate.)

Paris: Charles de Gaulle or Orly?

This one surprised us. Orly has the reputation as the cheap one, but for these trips it wasn’t: Charles de Gaulle (CDG) beat Paris Orly (ORY) on 15 of 23 shared destinations, by a median €34. Half the fares we checked from CDG were easyJet; Orly’s biggest was Transavia. In our deals the gap shrinks to about €8, so Orly still throws up the odd bargain. Day to day, check CDG first. (We don’t check Beauvais.)

Berlin or Hamburg?

Berlin (BER) was cheaper than Hamburg (HAM) on 14 of 17 shared destinations, by a median €41. If you’re between the two, or don’t mind the train, check Berlin too. It also beat Frankfurt on 24 of 29, by €52.

Further south and west, Düsseldorf beat Frankfurt on 23 of 38, by €29. Frankfurt and Munich came out about even: both pricey.

Amsterdam or Brussels?

Amsterdam Schiphol won only 12 of the 39 destinations it shared with Brussels Airport (BRU), and Brussels was a median €26 cheaper. Unlike most cross-border tips, this one is in our data: if you live in the south of the Netherlands, it’s worth a look. That’s Brussels Airport, not Charleroi, which we don’t check.

Other swaps people swear by, like Basel instead of Zurich or Eindhoven instead of Amsterdam, may well work too. We just don’t check those airports, so we can’t tell you by how much.

1. Malpensa vs Zurichcheaper on 28 of 29 destinations€80 cheaper
2. Berlin vs Frankfurtcheaper on 24 of 29 destinations€52 cheaper
3. Berlin vs Hamburgcheaper on 14 of 17 destinations€41 cheaper
4. Charles de Gaulle vs Orlycheaper on 15 of 23 destinations€34 cheaper
5. Düsseldorf vs Frankfurtcheaper on 23 of 38 destinations€29 cheaper
6. Malpensa vs Romecheaper on 34 of 44 destinations€27 cheaper
7. Brussels vs AmsterdamAmsterdam cheaper on only 12 of 39 destinations€26 cheaper
8. Malpensa vs Bergamocheaper on 16 of 20 destinations€24 cheaper

Typical (median) difference in the everyday return fare, on destinations both airports fly to, checked 8 August – 28 September 2026.

Why the cheap airports are cheap

They’re budget airline bases. Of the fares we checked from Stansted, 68% were Ryanair; from Bergamo, 76%. Luton is easyJet and Wizz Air, Malpensa is easyJet’s big Italian base, Barcelona is Vueling and Ryanair. Lots of seats, low costs, and planes that have to be filled.

The priciest airports are hubs where no budget airline dominates. At Munich, no airline had more than 11% of our fares. Heathrow’s biggest was Vueling, at 27%, because Ryanair and easyJet don’t fly there.

Being a budget base isn’t enough on its own. Dublin is 68% Ryanair in our fares and still only average. Vienna is 62% Ryanair and only slightly below typical. But every airport at the cheap end of the table has one or two budget airlines behind most of its fares.

• Milan Bergamo76%Ryanair
• London Stansted68%Ryanair
• London Heathrow27%Vueling, the biggest
• Munich11%No airline had more

Share of the fares we checked from each airport that belonged to its biggest airline, 8 August – 28 September 2026. These are our fares, not all flights.

Hunting deals? The big hubs fall further behind

Everything so far is everyday prices. Our deals, the cheap fares our daily Google Flights scan turns up, tell the same story at the cheap end: Malpensa, Barcelona, Bergamo, Rome, Luton and Stansted again. At the pricey end, they tell it louder.

Everyday faresDealsTypical airport

Pricier still when you hunt deals

1. OsloEveryday fares +35% → , Deals +50%
2. HelsinkiEveryday fares +36% → , Deals +48%
3. ZurichEveryday fares +21% → , Deals +44%
4. London HeathrowEveryday fares +13% → , Deals +39%
5. FrankfurtEveryday fares +15% → , Deals +33%
6. MunichEveryday fares +19% → , Deals +31%
7. AmsterdamEveryday fares +10% → , Deals +29%

Better for deals than on an ordinary day

1. ManchesterEveryday fares 0% → , Deals −24%
2. PalmaEveryday fares −6% → , Deals −19%
3. ViennaEveryday fares −4% → , Deals −15%
4. DublinEveryday fares +2% → , Deals −12%
5. EdinburghEveryday fares +12% → , Deals −6%

Each airport against the typical airport flying to the same places. Everyday fares checked 8 August – 28 September 2026; deals first found 24 July – 27 September 2026, from 34 airports.

A Heathrow deal is cheap for Heathrow. That doesn’t make it cheap. The deals we found from Stansted were a median €96 cheaper than Heathrow’s to the same places, and Gatwick’s were €97 cheaper. So when your hub has a sale, check the budget airport down the road before you book.

Where the deals beat the everyday price

It works the other way too. At Manchester, Palma, Vienna, Dublin and Edinburgh the everyday price is nothing special, but the deals were among the best we found.

Manchester is the stand-out. Search on a random day and you’ll pay about what everyone else pays. But when Manchester fares drop, they drop hard: its deals came out 24% below the typical airport’s, and only Malpensa and Barcelona did better. From airports like these, today’s price isn’t the one to judge by. The trick is being there when it drops.

How to use this

1. Check every airport within about two hours. Not just the one you always use. Between airports in the same city, the gap ran from €20 to €110 in our data.
2. Know what kind of airport you’re at. At a budget base, an ordinary day is already cheap, so compare airports first. At a deal airport like Manchester or Dublin, wait for the drop. At a pricey hub, a sale is a good start, not the finish line.
3. Watch the budget airline that bases there. Ryanair at Stansted and Bergamo, easyJet at Luton, Malpensa and Charles de Gaulle, Vueling at Barcelona. Their fares are what make the cheap end of the table cheap.
4. Add the bags before you compare. Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air base fares don’t include a checked bag. A full-service fare that includes one can close some of the gap.
5. Count the trip to the airport. A far airport’s saving has to pay for the train or bus, and for a hotel night if the flight leaves before 6am. Saving €40 and spending €50 getting there isn’t saving.

Your trip, all in

1. The fare you found
2. +A checked bag, if the fare leaves it out
3. +The train or bus to the airport, both ways
4. +A hotel night, if you fly before 6am

=The price to compare

A far airport only wins if it’s still cheaper after these.

For what counts as a good fare once you’ve picked the airport, see Is this a good flight price?. For timing, When to book flights.

Frequently asked questions

What should I keep in mind about these numbers?

They’re a snapshot, not every fare: 48,619 everyday fares from 57 airports, checked 8 August to 28 September 2026 on routes where we’d found deals. Each is the cheapest Google Flights price before bags, and “within Europe” means trips under about 4,000 km, so the Canaries and North Africa count. Airports we don’t search, such as Beauvais or Charleroi, aren’t in the ranking.