Stansted vs Luton: Which London Airport Is Better for Cheap Flights?

• £37

  Median Stansted deal fare in our feed, 17 Oct 2026 (18 deals)

• £55.50

  Median Luton deal fare in our feed, 17 Oct 2026 (18 deals)

• 18 of 27

  Shared destinations where Stansted's median deal was lower

• £4.90

  Luton DART adult single if your rail ticket excludes it

Stansted vs Luton: the short verdict

If you are choosing between Stansted vs Luton for a cheap flight, the honest answer is that the airline decides more than the airport. Stansted is dominated by Ryanair. Luton is easyJet’s home (its registered office is Hangar 89 at the airport) and a growing Wizz Air base, with some Ryanair and Jet2 flying as well. So the cheaper airport is usually whichever one has the low-cost carrier that serves your destination on your dates.

Both are big. The Civil Aviation Authority’s figures for the 12 months from August 2025 to July 2026 put Stansted at about 30.2 million terminal passengers, fourth in the UK, and Luton at about 18.3 million, fifth. Neither is a small airport where you can turn up late and walk through.

Our rule of thumb: start at Stansted for Ryanair city breaks to Italy, Scandinavia, Poland and the Canaries; start at Luton for easyJet sun routes, Wizz Air to central and eastern Europe, and longer easyJet flights to Egypt, Iceland and Türkiye. Then price the journey to the airport, because that can wipe out a hypothetical £10 fare difference.

What our deal data shows side by side

Blame the Fare’s deal scanner flags return fares that sit below the typical price a provider shows for that route. Between 19 September and 17 October 2026 it logged 522 deal observations from Stansted and, by coincidence, exactly 522 from Luton. These are deals, not every fare on sale, so treat the figures as a snapshot of what has been appearing rather than a price guarantee.

Two things stand out. Stansted’s deals cluster at the very bottom of the price range: 35 of its 63 routes had a median deal of £40 return or less. Luton spreads wider, partly because it has more longer flights in the mix. Sharm El-Sheikh (23 deals, median £128), Yerevan (19 deals, median £128) and Tel Aviv (12 deals, median £188) all pull its averages up, and none of those had a Stansted deal in the period.

The lead-time line is a description, not advice. A median of 30 days at Stansted versus 48 at Luton tells you roughly how far ahead the flagged departures were; it does not prove when it is cheapest to book. Our guide to finding the cheapest airport to fly from explains why fares are set route by route.

Same destination, different airport

The fairest comparison is the 27 destinations where both airports had deals logged between 19 September and 17 October 2026. Stansted had the lower median deal fare on 18 of them; Luton on the other 9. The sample on some routes is tiny, so the deal counts matter as much as the prices.

The pattern is clear enough to use. Where Ryanair flies from Stansted and easyJet from Luton, Stansted usually showed the lower deal. Where Stansted only had Jet2 or TUI and Luton had Wizz Air or easyJet, as on Larnaca, Burgas and Heraklion, Luton came out ahead. Larnaca is the sharpest example: £159 median at Stansted against £74 at Luton.

Watch the destination airport too. Stansted’s Rome deals went to Ciampino (18 deals, median £36), while Luton’s went to Fiumicino (2 deals, median £61). Stansted’s Warsaw deals were to Modlin, Luton’s to Chopin. A cheaper ticket to a more distant airport can cost you back in transfers at the other end.

Airline mix: Ryanair at Stansted, easyJet and Wizz at Luton

At Stansted, Ryanair or Ryanair UK appeared on 59 of the 63 routes in our history. Ryanair calls Stansted its London base and announced 140 cabin crew jobs there for summer 2026. Jet2 showed up on seven routes, mainly Greek islands and Cyprus, and TUI on one. There were no easyJet or Wizz Air deals from Stansted in the period.

Luton is more mixed. easyJet appeared on 32 of its 74 routes, Wizz Air on 22, Ryanair on 12 and Jet2 on 4, with eight routes where the provider did not name the airline. Wizz Air bought slots at Luton from TUI in December 2025, taking its based fleet there to 15 aircraft and adding routes including Yerevan, Lyon and Turin for summer 2026.

That mix changes what “cheap” means once bags are added. Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air all sell low base fares with paid larger cabin bags and hold luggage, and the rules differ. Compare the total with the bags you will actually take. Our guide to whether budget airlines are worth it covers that arithmetic.

Getting there from central London

From central London, Luton is quicker on paper and Stansted is simpler on the day. Stansted’s station is a two-minute walk from the terminal. Luton’s trains stop at Luton Airport Parkway, where you change to the Luton DART shuttle for the last four minutes.

The DART catch is worth knowing. A rail ticket to “London Luton Airport” includes the shuttle; a ticket to “Luton Airport Parkway” or “Luton” does not, and the DART then costs £4.90 for an adult single. The DART runs 24 hours and accepts contactless at the ticket machines.

At Stansted, the Stansted Express takes contactless but Oyster is not valid to the airport. The airport says advance returns start at about £18.90. Coaches run all night to both airports, which matters for the first flights of the day. Stansted’s own coach page tells London passengers to allow at least four hours before departure, because road times into Essex are unpredictable.

From south and west London, Luton usually wins: Thameslink runs straight through Blackfriars and London Bridge. From east London and the City, Stansted is often easier via Liverpool Street, Tottenham Hale or a coach from Stratford.

Getting there from outside London

If you live outside London, the answer depends on which side you are coming from. Stansted has CrossCountry rail links and coach services to places including Birmingham, Cambridge and Oxford, which the airport lists at around ten a day each. It suits East Anglia, Essex and Hertfordshire.

Luton sits on the Thameslink line, so it is reachable without changing trains from Gatwick Airport and Brighton on many southbound services, and its M1 position helps drivers from the Midlands and the north. If you are thinking of travelling a long way to either, compare a flight from your own airport first; our page on searching several airports at once shows how to price them together. Regional fare previews are on the UK departures hub.

One more link: National Express route 737 runs between Luton and Stansted, taking 1 hour 35 minutes at its fastest, with fares from £16.60 listed by Luton airport. Handy if you fly out of one and back into the other, but check the timetable, because the airport’s own page is inconsistent on how often it runs.

Drop-off charges and the free alternatives

Both airports charge for kerbside drop-off, and both have a free option a shuttle ride away. At both terminal drop-off zones you pay online after the visit, so set a reminder before you drive off.

For one drop-off and one pick-up, that is £20 or more at Stansted and £18 or more at Luton before any overstay. Against one of the £30 Ryanair returns in the data, the lift can cost almost as much as the flight. The free car parks add roughly 10 to 20 minutes, so build that into an early start. Luton says its Long Stay shuttle runs 24 hours and takes around 10 minutes.

Security and first-wave flights

Low-cost carriers with based aircraft at both airports run plenty of early-morning departures, and a cheap fare is no use if you cannot get there. Check how you will reach the airport before you book a 06:00 flight. Stansted Express trains from Liverpool Street start between 03:40 and 04:40 depending on the day; Thameslink runs through the night to Luton Airport Parkway, while the faster Luton Airport Express runs from about 05:45 on weekdays.

At Stansted, the airport’s security page (updated September 2026) says liquids in containers of 100ml or less and laptops can stay in your hand luggage during screening; larger containers may be removed. Fast Track is open 04:00 to 20:00 with limited availability. For Luton, check the airport’s current security guidance on the day, as rules on liquids are changing airport by airport. Our guide to how early to arrive at the airport explains how to work back from bag-drop and gate cut-offs.

When another London airport beats both

Stansted and Luton are not the only London options. Gatwick, Heathrow and London City each have a different airline mix, and for some routes one of them will simply have the cheaper carrier. If the fares come out close, the airport you can reach cheaply and reliably on the day is the better buy.

Compare current examples on our airport pages for Stansted, Luton, Gatwick, Heathrow and London City. For short breaks, our guide to cheap weekend flights from the UK shows how to judge departure times against the time off you have.

How to choose for one specific trip

1. Search both airports together. Use a London-wide search or add STN and LTN as origins, with the same dates and passengers.
2. Note the airline on each fare. Ryanair from Stansted against easyJet or Wizz Air from Luton is often the real comparison.
3. Add bags at checkout. Price the cabin bag and hold luggage you will take on each airline, not the base fare.
4. Add the ground journey both ways. Use the advance rail fare, the coach fare or the drop-off charge, and remember the DART if your ticket ends at Parkway.
5. Check the clock. Make sure the first train or coach gets you there in time, and the last one gets you home.
6. Check the arrival airport. Ciampino against Fiumicino or Modlin against Chopin can change the total.

If your trip is fixed but the price is not right yet, a Watch can do the repeat checking. Members of The Departures Club can set an exact origin, destination, date pair and maximum return fare, checked hourly. Membership is priced in U.S. dollars: $9 per month or $79 per year; where available, the founding annual offer is $49 for the first year, renewing at $79. Eligible new annual members get a 7-day trial with a card required. Blame the Fare does not sell tickets; you book with the airline or agent. See current plans or the public deal feed. If a delay hits on the day, our UK flight delay compensation guide covers what you can claim.