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Which nine airports can you fly to from the UK but not from London?

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I occasionally see a bit of analysis online and kick myself for not thinking of it first, because it is quirky / interesting / unique.

Here’s a great example, from James Pearson on LinkedIn, who writes for Simple Flying.

There are nine airports you can fly to from the UK, but not from any of the London airports. Which are they?

According to Cirium data, in the first nine months of 2023 there were flights from London airports to over 390 destinations.

For nine airports, though, you will need to leave the cosy confines of London behind and head north. (Or, of course, fly from London and change somewhere.)

Here are the nine airports – note that many of these routes are seasonal:

  • Brussels Charleroi – British Airways can get you to Brussels International, but if you need to go to Charleroi you can fly there from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester.
  • Donegal – the only UK flight is on Loganair from Glasgow
  • Esbjerg, Denmark – if you want to fly there directly, you’ll need to head to Aberdeen or Newcastle. Again, Loganair is the carrier.
  • Ohrid, North Macedonia – you’ll be taking Tui from Manchester if you want a direct flight
  • Paris Beauvais – you can get here from Belfast International, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford and Manchester, but nowhere further south
  • Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – again, Tui from Manchester is the only way to fly this route direct
  • Reggio di Calabria, Italy – Ryanair will start flying this route from Manchester this year
  • Varadero, Cuba – again, Tui from Manchester is your friend here
  • Weeze, Germany – Ryanair can get you here from Edinburgh

Some of these cities have been served from London in the past, mainly on Ryanair and Tui, but apparently there have never been flights from the London area to Weeze or Reggio di Calabria.

Thanks again to James Pearson for doing the legwork here.

Category

General

Comments (76)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Yvo says:
    17 Feb17 February 07:53

    Yes there were flights to Düsseldorf Weeze from STN in the mid 00s, the airport was ion a creepy abandoned military base which would have presumably have been redeveloped by now. I would often leave my job across the road from Liverpool St station early on a Friday and hop on the Stansted Express to fly there or Eindhoven (occasionally Cologne but Lufthansa was £££) with Ryanair to visit my partner in the military nearby.

  • Chris W says:
    17 Feb17 February 08:09

    Has anyone done the big all inclusives in Cuba? Seems like an odd place to go to flop and do nothing? I have heard Havana is a difficult destination to visit as a tourist, so I assume the big resorts have some challenges too?

    Not sure why you would go there versus somewhere more dependable like Mexico?

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:06

      May not bother you but visiting Cuba will then require you to get a visa if you want to visit the US in future.

      • Paul says:
        17 Feb17 February 12:33

        I don’t think getting to Cuba is very difficult and once there, you would have a nice time. The difficulty only arises when you then try to visit the USA who will go out of there way to make your life difficult and expensive.

        Acquaintances have just emigrated to NZ and booked 50 nights on Cunard to get there, departing early Jan. The US issued ESTAs and then 5 weeks before departure cancelled one of them and required the full visa. This because the went to Cuba around 6 years ago. That required visit to London, expense and pleas to Cunard to switch ships. The first date for an appointment was February.

        As anyone knows who has to go through this pathetic charade, you can get cancellations – and they did, but this is just for the interview – the visa is then issued separately and posted home. It arrived on the 23rd December.
        They travelled as planned but did not disembark in any of the US ports for fear of yet more inconvenience.

        I just wish the U.K. would reciprocate but no, here we bend over and offer up egates while our own get treated badly and queue for ever at some US entry points

        I might be wrong but I don’t think a second passport can help in this instance. Not sure why but clearly someone somewhere is passing data to the USA about those visiting Cuba from the U.K.

        • Nico says:
          17 Feb17 February 18:03

          Cuba is on the US list on from 2021 so should not be a problem for esta if you have been before.

    • Chris says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:36

      Years ago, yes (c. 2000 I thin). Stayed in Beaches Varadero. Was good and on a par with other Caribbean AI hotels. As mentioned, wouldn’t go now as I travel to the US a lot for work, have Global Entry etc and so wouldn’t want to risk that.

    • George says:
      17 Feb17 February 10:41

      “I have heard Havana is a difficult destination to visit as a tourist”

      It isn’t

      • Chabuddy Geezy says:
        17 Feb17 February 13:44

        Getting their Esta cancelled because they visited Cuba six years ago sounds fishy. You only need a visa for the USA if you have visited Cuba since January 2021.

      • Londonsteve says:
        17 Feb17 February 14:16

        That depends. I visited in 2016 and while I greatly enjoyed my visit, mainly because I really wanted to experience Havana, it WAS a difficult city for a tourist. We experienced incessant scam attempts in touristy areas, you couldn’t make a photo or stop to admire a building without someone attempting to engage you and was once properly tucked up costing us 100 USD despite being astute and wary travellers. There was and remains no functional public transport infrastructure for tourists necessitating the use of expensive taxis that wouldn’t leave the rank for under 10 Euros, I gather it’s now more due to the scarcity of fuel. The money situation is even harder now that they’ve done away with the 2 currency system requiring tourists to bring plentiful hard currency cash to exchange on the black market (can’t use a bank as you’ll get a fraction of the ‘real’ rate) AND a debit or credit card that’s not connected to a US bank to use in government shops and hotels that won’t take cash. Even finding bottled water is now not so easy as a tourist. It’s all very sad because it looked like finally Cuba was on an upward path.

        • George says:
          17 Feb17 February 14:56

          “That depends. I visited in 2016 and while I greatly enjoyed my visit, mainly because I really wanted to experience Havana, it WAS a difficult city for a tourist”

          I went in 2018 and didn’t find Havana difficult at all with a bit of research.

          Scams were avoided by not engaging with people trying to scam me.

          Most of the places in Havana were walkable (sometimes a long walk admittedly) if staying in the centre

          • apbj says:
            17 Feb17 February 17:28

            I’m afraid my experiences have been similar to those of LondonSteve, nothing to do with research, more just the everyday hassle of getting things done in environment where everyone is (understandably) out to make as much money from you as they can. Power cuts, broken elevators, thefts from hotel rooms, meal coupons that suddenly become invalid unless you hand over more cash, it can detract from the charm of the experience. I booked a couple of days in an all-inclusive as a form of respite and it was a huge relief to have the friction of cash transactions removed from the equation, not to mention it was fun to get the bus to Varadero even if we had to get out and push when the fuel ran out. Cuba is thus one of the places where all-inclusive does make sense.

    • cin3 says:
      17 Feb17 February 16:09

      Cuba is an amazing place to visit as a traveller but I really don’t see the point of an all inclusive (nor anywhwre else in the world of I’m being honest).

      • tony says:
        17 Feb17 February 18:37

        We visited Havana on a cruise in 2018. Had pre arranged a classic car ride direct with a local driver, had some food in a restaurant and drinks at the roof bar of some grande dame hotel. Walked back to the boat, no hassle at all. Might be a different situation at night but we were fine and I’d have gone back if it wasn’t for the ESTA situation.

        • Matarredonda says:
          17 Feb17 February 18:48

          Visited Cuba 2017 and was offered option of passport being stamped or not. Admittedly I arrived via Panama.
          Cuba to my mind is a superb place to visit and to go all inclusive is tosh.
          I can honestly say had the best steak ever in a tiny restaurant upstairs looking onto a square
          Getting around on the buses wasn’t an issue either

    • Erico1875 says:
      17 Feb17 February 18:47

      We went to Varadero about 15 years ago.
      Probably the most disappointing holiday ever.
      For a place that relies on tourists, customer service was non existent anywhere we went.
      Unless you gave at least a dollar tip up front you were ignored.
      Although we were AI we ate out at several local Casa’s but even there there was a complete lethargy to their customers

  • Andy says:
    17 Feb17 February 08:11

    Are there any other UK flights to Floro, Norway, other than Loganair’s from EDI?

  • Nick says:
    17 Feb17 February 08:29

    If you want to argue about ‘London’ airports, you need to add both (London) Oxford and (London) Southend to the mix.

    • Ironside says:
      17 Feb17 February 10:15

      The impression was that Oxford thought “We’ll rename as London for a laugh” followed swiftly by “Crikey! We’ve actually got away with it!”

      • Andrew. says:
        17 Feb17 February 10:29

        Loved the Minoan flights from London Oxford to Edinburgh.

        Wish they’d restart!

  • Jeffrey says:
    17 Feb17 February 08:35

    What about Schiphol from Belfast city with Klm?

    • Andy says:
      17 Feb17 February 08:54

      What about it?

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:05

      Well since you can fly there from LON that route doesn’t fit in with the premise of the article – ex UK destinations that don’t also depart from London!

  • SandsofEss says:
    17 Feb17 February 08:58

    Ryanair used to operate Stansted to Weeze. I flew there and back in a day in 2007.

  • Nigel Pattenden says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:33

    There used to be more flights to Ohrid, I went a few years ago I think Easyjet from Luton . Shame that’s been discontinued. Ohrid is a beautiful old city, the people are lovely, and I’d recommend a long weekend to anyone.

    • LD27 says:
      17 Feb17 February 12:08

      Agree. Ohrid is a beautiful city on the edge of the lake. We spent a a few days there last year. We took the bus from Tirana and then on to Skopje. Was an amazing trip.

      • Rob Collins says:
        18 Feb18 February 13:39

        We were in Ohrid when the first direct flights started (Wizz Air from Luton). I read an article at the time about how heavily subsidised the flights were. The government were effectively paying the airline to establish flights for the first 2-3 years in the hope of establishing Ohrid as a tourist destination. A shame it’s no longer in operation, as Ohrid remains one of my favourite places.

  • Charlie says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:54

    It misses off Ascension Island and Falkland Islands, for which you take AirTanker from Brize Norton.

    • Stuart Rogers says:
      17 Feb17 February 10:49

      As former Military aircrew I’m pretty sure that the sophisticated readership of this site would enjoy the lounge facilities at Brize nor the sleeping and feeding arrangements on board nor the lack of bar facilities and amenity packs! However, some more adveturous characters may enjoy the challenge!

    • Ben says:
      17 Feb17 February 16:34

      Anyone know the cost? The need is be way tickets towards South/Central America later in the year.

      • Ben says:
        17 Feb17 February 17:11

        Found something from 2021 that suggests £2k+ pp return.

        • tony says:
          17 Feb17 February 18:31

          And I believe civilian passengers are considered sub-load so you could be booted off the flight if they need the seat for military staff

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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