Cheapest UK Airport for Day Trips Abroad, 4,880 Fares
Stansted and Luton are the cheapest UK airports for a day trip abroad, both with a middle fare of £88 across November and December 2026. Heathrow was £219 and had no fares under £50.
Stansted and Luton. Those are the cheapest UK airports for a day trip abroad, both with a middle fare of £88 for a same-day return across November and December 2026.
We know because we price every one of our extreme day trips from live fares. So we took every same-day return on the board, 4,880 of them from 14 airports, from 2 November to 23 December, and ranked the airports by the middle fare.
Which UK airport is cheapest for a day trip?
Here's the full list, cheapest first. The middle fare is the one with as many fares above it as below, so a few silly prices don't drag it around.
- Stansted, £88
- Luton, £88
- Liverpool, £96
- Gatwick, £111
- Bristol, £118
- Edinburgh, £138.50
- Manchester, £147
- Glasgow, £173
- Birmingham, £177
- Leeds Bradford, £215
- Heathrow, £219
- Newcastle, £238
East Midlands and Southend had too few fares to rank fairly, 13 and 7, so I've left them off the list.
Why is Stansted so cheap?
Choice, mostly. Stansted had 771 fares to 55 different places, and 150 of them were under £50. No other airport came close on that.
Luton matched it on the middle fare but with fewer options, 41 fares under £50 to 19 places. Gatwick had the most choice after Stansted, 42 destinations, but only 35 fares under £50.
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What were the cheapest flights from each airport?
- Stansted. Cork for £28.00 on Wednesdays in November.
- Luton. Knock for £28.00 on Thursday 10 December.
- Manchester. Cork for £28.00 on several dates in November. Day trips from Manchester
- Edinburgh. Cork for £28.00 on Saturday 14 November.
- Liverpool. Dublin for £30.00 on Wednesday 25 November.
- Gatwick. Dublin for £30.00 on Tuesday 24 November, and Palma for £33.00 in mid December.
- Heathrow. Dublin for £92.00, the cheapest it had.
Spot the pattern. Cork and Dublin are the cheapest day out from almost every airport.
What about Heathrow?
Heathrow had the most fares of all, 1,117, but not one of them was under £50, and the middle fare was £219.
If you live near Heathrow, it's often worth the trip round to Gatwick, Luton or Stansted. The difference in the middle fare is over £100.
London has three of the top four. Stansted and Luton are the cheapest, Gatwick has the widest spread of places after Stansted, and between them you can get to most of Europe for a day.
What if you live in the north?
Liverpool is the north's best bet, third overall at £96, and it's strong on Dublin, Alicante, Amsterdam and Malaga. Manchester has more choice, 26 destinations, but its middle fare is £147. Edinburgh beats Glasgow by a long way, £138.50 against £173.
How do you use this to save money?
- Check the next airport over. Add up the extra travel and parking, then compare it with the fare difference.
- Look at Ireland first. Cork and Dublin top the cheap list from nearly everywhere.
- Go midweek. Our cheapest day of the week to fly piece found Monday cheapest and Friday dearest.
- Check today's fare, not ours. These are from 1 November, and fares move daily.
How did we work this out?
We pulled every same-day return fare priced for an exact date, out in the morning and home the same night, from our board on 1 November. That's 4,880 fares across 14 airports. Belfast International had none for these dates, so it isn't in the list.
It's two months and day trips only, so a week's holiday will price differently. But the order is a good guide to where the cheap flights are.
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