Ryanair alternate airports are the reason a cheap fare to “Paris” can land you 47 miles from central Paris. Ryanair sells cities; it does not always fly to them, close though. At the time of this writing, its own network page lists 222 airports in 35 countries, and in a dozen major European cities the airport on your boarding pass is not the one the city is known for. In roughly 20 more, Ryanair flies to both airports, so which one you get depends on the flight number.
The short answer: Ryanair does not serve these airports at all:
- Dusseldorf (DUS)
- Florence (FLR)
- Frankfurt Main (FRA)
- London-Heathrow (LHR)
- Lyon (LYS)
- Milan-Linate (LIN)
- Munich (MUC)
- Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Paris-Orly (ORY)
- Stuttgart (STR)
- Zurich (ZRH) and Geneva (GVA)
In those cities it flies to:
- Dusseldorf: Weeze (NRN)
- Florence: Pisa (PSA)
- Frankfurt: Hahn (HHN)
- Lyon: Grenoble (GNB)
- Munich: Memmingen (FMM)
- Paris: Beauvais (BVA)
- Stuttgart: Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (FKB)
In a second and larger group, including Rome, Milan, Venice, Brussels, Barcelona, Warsaw, Vienna, Stockholm and Oslo, Ryanair flies to both the main airport and the alternate, so the airport you get depends entirely on which flight you pick. As much as I’ve flown Ryanair, I’ve not flown to any of these out of the way airports, yet.
Why does Ryanair fly to alternate airports?
Cost, and Ryanair says so openly. Secondary airports charge lower fees, turn aircraft faster and hand out growth incentives that big hubs do not. When the numbers stop working at a primary airport, Ryanair leaves.
In April 2026 Ryanair announced it is closing its seven-aircraft Berlin Brandenburg (BER) base starting October 24, 2026 due to high aviation taxes.
The other half of the equation is the turnaround. Secondary airports let Ryanair park on a remote stand, drop its own airstairs at the front and roll a set up to the back, and load through two doors at once. I filmed exactly that on a MAX 8-200, and it is the single clearest picture of why the cheap airport works for them.
They pretty much did the same thing in Belgium. Ryanair closed its Brussels-Zaventem (BRU) base in October 2022 and today runs a big operation at Charleroi (CRL) with a handful of unbased routes still at Zaventem.
Why this matters when you are pass riding
If you are flying non-rev, a Ryanair ticket is usually the best thing for a gap: you headed to London or Dublin or Madrid on your own metal, and now you need a cheap paid segment to finish the trip or to position for a better standby position tomorrow. That works beautifully until the airport swap breaks the plan.
Three things to watch:
- Your non-rev arrival and your Ryanair departure may be different airports in the same city. Landing at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and departing from Paris-Beauvais is not a connection. It is a cross-city trip, a bus ride out of town. You may be able to check-in online, but it depends on your destination and the passport you hold.
- The return leg is where people get caught. If your standby flight home leaves from Rome-Fiumicino (FCO) and your Ryanair inbound lands at Rome-Ciampino (CIA), build the ground time in before you buy.
- The transfer can cost more than the flight. Girona (GRO) to Barcelona is €22 one way. Castellon (CDT) to Valencia is €26. On a €19 fare, the bus is the expensive part. But if it means making a flight, it may be worth it.
If you are building a Europe trip around standby space, the Europe Non-Rev Travel Planning Playbook covers the sequencing side of this, and countless ways to get from Europe to the U.S. covers the way home.
Every major city and the Ryanair airport you actually get
Route counts below are Ryanair’s own nonstop routes at each airport. Fares are published one-way adult prices, and the “from” prices are lead-in online fares that move with the date. Where an airport or operator does not publish a distance or a fare, I have said so rather than guess.
| City | Ryanair airport | Routes | Distance to the city | Published ground transfer | Main airport Ryanair skips |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alicante | Murcia Region (RMU) | 8, plus 91 at Alicante | About 51 mi straight line to Alicante, 13 mi to Murcia | Interbus to Murcia San Andres. No published scheduled service to Alicante city, and Aena publishes no fares | None. Alicante has 91 Ryanair routes |
| Amsterdam | Eindhoven (EIN) | 38, plus 2 at Schiphol | About 67 mi straight line, not published | Hermes bus 400/401 to Eindhoven Centraal about 20 min from €5.15, then NS to Amsterdam Centraal from €24.10 | Schiphol has only 2 Ryanair routes, Malaga and Dublin |
| Barcelona | Girona (GRO) and Reus (REU) | 31 at GRO, 12 at REU, plus 64 at Barcelona | Girona about 47 mi straight line. Reus 67 mi per Barcelona Turisme | Girona: Sagales 602/604 to Barcelona Nord, €22, journey time not published. Reus: Hispano Igualadina to Barcelona Sants, fare not published | None. El Prat has 64 Ryanair routes |
| Berlin | Berlin Brandenburg (BER) | 48 | Main airport, no alternate | Standard BER rail links | None, but the 7-aircraft base closes October 24, 2026 |
| Bologna | Rimini (RMI) and Forli (FRL) | 12 at RMI, 3 at FRL, plus 62 at Bologna | Rimini about 71 mi, Forli about 42 mi, neither published | Start Romagna bus to the local station, then Regionale. Forli Aeroporto Link adds €1.50 to a rail fare | None. Bologna itself has 62 Ryanair routes |
| Brussels | Charleroi (CRL) | 112, plus 11 at Zaventem | About 27 mi straight line, not published by the airport | Flibco to Brussels-Midi. The airport says 45 min, Flibco says 55 to 60 min, from €14.99 | Zaventem keeps 11 unbased routes. The base closed October 2022 |
| Bucharest | Baneasa (BBU) and Otopeni (OTP) | 5 at BBU, 38 at OTP | Baneasa 8.5 km, 5.3 mi, from downtown | STB city buses 131, 335, 148, 112 and 301, 3 RON. Journey times not published | None. Of the alternates here, Baneasa sits closest to the city it is sold as serving |
| Dusseldorf | Weeze (NRN) | 49 | 43 mi, the airport states about 70 km north of Dusseldorf | Airport Weeze Shuttle to Dusseldorf Hbf, 1 hr 15 min, €24 | Dusseldorf, zero Ryanair routes today. The base closed in October 2020 |
| Florence | Pisa (PSA) | 59 | About 43 mi straight line to Florence, 0.6 mi to Pisa itself | PisaMover to Pisa Centrale, about 5 min, €6.50, then Trenitalia to Firenze SMN, 50 min to 1 hr 20 min | Florence, zero Ryanair routes |
| Frankfurt | Frankfurt-Hahn (HHN) | 31 | 127 km, 79 mi, by road per the bus operator. The airport publishes no distance to Frankfurt | Flibco or Flixbus, about 2 hr 10 min, from €17.48 | Frankfurt Main, zero routes since March 2022 |
| Glasgow | Prestwick (PIK) | 11, plus 7 at Glasgow | Not published. The airport quotes 40 minutes by car or train | ScotRail from the airport station, 2 trains an hour, from £6.20. The airport says about 40 min, ScotRail’s own page averages 56 min. Tickets cannot be bought at the station | None, but Prestwick has more Ryanair routes than Glasgow |
| Hamburg | Lubeck (LBC) | 3, plus 7 at Hamburg itself | Not published. The airport markets Hamburg as inside a 60-minute drive | Train station at the airport, 9 min to Lubeck Hbf. No published bus to Hamburg | None. Ryanair serves Hamburg too, on 7 routes |
| Krakow | Katowice (KTW) | 28, plus 88 at Krakow | 107 km, 66 mi, by road | Flixbus, 1 hr 20 min, from €9.97 | None. Krakow itself has 88 Ryanair routes |
| London | Stansted (STN), Luton (LTN), Gatwick (LGW) | 142, 33 and 4 | Stansted 40 mi, Luton 35 mi, Gatwick 28 mi, all per Visit London | Stansted Express 48 min from £9.45. Luton DART 4 min £4.90 plus Luton Airport Express 22 min from £10. Gatwick Express 30 min, no fixed fare published | Heathrow, zero Ryanair routes |
| Lyon | Grenoble Alpes Isere (GNB) | 6 | 50 min to Lyon by road, no km published. The airport is 44.5 km, 27.7 mi, from Grenoble itself | Shuttle to Grenoble station, 40 min, fare not published. No scheduled bus to Lyon is listed | Lyon, zero Ryanair routes |
| Manchester | Liverpool (LPL) | 37, plus 82 at Manchester | Not published | The Terravision Liverpool to Manchester bus is listed as temporarily suspended by its own operator. Everything else published goes to Liverpool, £2 on Arriva 500 | None. Manchester has 82 Ryanair routes |
| Marseille and Montpellier | Nimes (FNI) | 6, plus 56 at Marseille | Marseille 1 hr 10 min, Montpellier 40 min, by road | Tango shuttle into Nimes, about 25 min, €7. Nothing nonstop to Marseille or Montpellier | None at Marseille, which has 56 Ryanair routes. Montpellier has none |
| Milan | Bergamo (BGY) and Malpensa (MXP) | 107 at BGY, 51 at MXP | Bergamo 31 mi, Malpensa 28 mi, both per YesMilano | Terravision from Bergamo to Milano Centrale, about 50 min, €5. Malpensa Express, 37 min to Cadorna, €15 | Linate, zero Ryanair routes |
| Munich | Memmingen (FMM), branded Munich West | 37 | About 110 km, 68 mi, west of the Munich metro area. Not published by the airport | Flixbus to Munich, 1 hr 20 min, from €10.98 | Munich, zero routes |
| Naples | Salerno Costa d’Amalfi (QSR) | 4, plus 59 at Naples | About 37 mi straight line to Naples | Salerno Airlink to Salerno station, 30 to 40 min, €8. No published transfer to Naples city center at all | None. Naples has 59 Ryanair routes |
| Oslo | Sandefjord Torp (TRF) | 11, plus 2 at Gardermoen | 119 km, 74 mi, south of Oslo per Vy | Vy shuttle plus train, 1 hr 45 min. Torp-Ekspressen bus, about 1 hr 30 min. Compare Gardermoen at about 47 km, 29 mi, out with a 19-minute Flytoget at 276 NOK | Gardermoen has only 2 Ryanair routes, Katowice and Vilnius |
| Palermo | Trapani Birgi (TPS) | 24, plus 48 at Palermo | About 50 mi straight line to Palermo | Autoservizi Salemi runs the Palermo bus. Neither the airport nor the operator publishes a fare or a journey time | None. Palermo has 48 Ryanair routes |
| Paris | Beauvais (BVA), plus Vatry (XCR) | 68 at BVA, 2 at XCR | 47 to 53 mi | Aerobus to Porte Maillot, from 1 hr 15 min, €17.90 online | CDG and Orly, zero Ryanair routes |
| Prague | Pardubice (PED) | 3, plus 41 at Prague | Not published | Bus 90 to Pardubice main station, 10 min, then Czech Railways, LEO Express or RegioJet. No official Prague transfer exists | None. Prague has 41 Ryanair routes |
| Rome | Ciampino (CIA) and Fiumicino (FCO) | 25 at CIA, 57 at FCO | Ciampino 9.3 mi, closer in than Fiumicino | Terravision or SIT to Termini, about 40 min, €6. Trenitalia Ciampino Airlink, €2.70. Compare the Leonardo Express from FCO, 32 min, €14 | None. Ciampino is the cheaper ride, not the worse one |
| Stockholm | Vasteras (VST) and Arlanda (ARN) | 3 at VST, 47 at ARN | Vasteras states 110 km, 68 mi, to Stockholm | Vy flygbussarna to Cityterminalen, about 80 min, from 229 SEK | None. Arlanda has 47 routes. Skavsta is gone, Ryanair exited it in late 2021 |
| Stuttgart and Strasbourg | Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (FKB) | 33 | Not published by the airport | Regional buses to Baden-Baden (about 26 min) and Rastatt only. No published bus or train to Stuttgart or Strasbourg | Stuttgart and Strasbourg, zero Ryanair routes at either |
| Toulouse | Carcassonne (CCF) | 10, plus 32 at Toulouse | 1 hour by road per the French airports body, no km published | RTCA shuttle into Carcassonne, €6, then a TER liO train to Toulouse, about 1 hr. No nonstop public transport to Toulouse | None. Toulouse has 32 Ryanair routes |
| Turin | Cuneo Levaldigi (CUF) | 2, plus 46 at Turin | About 36 mi straight line to Turin | FlyTrain to Savigliano station, 18 min, €7, booking required. Shuttle to Torino Lingotto about 1 hr, fare not published | None. Turin has 46 Ryanair routes |
| Valencia | Castellon (CDT) | 10, plus 61 at Valencia | Not published in km. The airport says about an hour by highway | Autos Mediterraneo bus, €26 to Valencia, €12 to Castello. Journey time not published | None. Valencia has 61 Ryanair routes |
| Venice | Treviso (TSF) and Marco Polo (VCE) | 42 at TSF, 31 at VCE | Treviso about 16 mi straight line, Marco Polo about 5 mi | ATVO charges the same €12 from either airport to Piazzale Roma. It advertises 40 min from Treviso, its own schedule shows about 70 min with the Mestre stops | None, but the fare is identical whether you land 5 or 16 miles out |
| Vienna | Bratislava (BTS) | 35, plus 69 at Vienna | 85 km, 53 mi, by road | Slovak Lines bus from Vienna Hauptbahnhof, 70 min, from €7.90 | None. Vienna has 69 Ryanair routes |
| Vilnius | Kaunas (KUN) | 26, plus 19 at Vilnius | Kaunas to Vilnius distance not published officially | Ollex airport express to Vilnius, €15, journey time not published | None, but Kaunas has more Ryanair routes than Vilnius |
| Warsaw | Modlin (WMI) | 52, plus 19 at Chopin | About 22 mi per the official Warsaw tourism site, against 6 mi for Chopin | Koleje Mazowieckie Airport Ticket, bus plus train, 20 PLN, about 1 hr 15 min. CONTBUS bus about 45 min | None, but Chopin has only 19 Ryanair routes to Modlin’s 52 |
| Zurich and Geneva | Basel (BSL) and Friedrichshafen (FDH) | 2 each | Basel is 5 km from Basel itself. No published Zurich distance | Basel: BVB bus 50 to Basel SBB, about 20 min, CHF 6.60 for 3 zones. Friedrichshafen publishes no times or fares at all | Zurich and Geneva, zero Ryanair routes |
Five airport swaps that surprise travelers most
- Paris-Beauvais. Even the airport’s own number, 47 miles, is the shortest one in circulation. The Paris tourism board says 50 to 53 miles and advises leaving central Paris three and a half hours before your flight. The Aerobus to Porte Maillot is €17.90 online and “from” 1 hour 15 minutes, which means traffic decides. Ryanair runs 68 routes there and zero at Charles de Gaulle or Orly.
- Frankfurt-Hahn. 127 km, 79 miles, by road per the bus operator, and roughly 2 hours 10 minutes on the bus each way. Hahn is in the Rhineland hills, not in Frankfurt’s suburbs. The airport publishes no distance to Frankfurt at all, only that 5.5 million people live within 100 km.
- Stockholm-Vasteras (VST). The airport’s own site concedes 110 km to Stockholm and an 80-minute bus. Arlanda (ARN), where Ryanair now bases and runs 47 routes, is a fraction of that. Vasteras is down to 3 routes: Malaga (AGP), Alicante (ALC) and Stansted (STN).
- Oslo-Torp (TRF). 74 miles south of Oslo per Vy, and 1 hour 45 minutes by shuttle plus train. Gardermoen (OSL) is about 47 km, 29 miles, out with a 19-minute Flytoget, and Ryanair flies just 2 routes there.
- Dusseldorf-Weeze. About 70 km north of Dusseldorf, by the airport’s own description, and closer to Nijmegen and Eindhoven (EIN) than to the city on the ticket. The airport says roughly 40 percent of its departing passengers come from the Netherlands. The Dusseldorf shuttle is €24 and 1 hour 15 minutes.
Where the alternate airport is actually the better choice
A few of the alternates are the better airport, not the worse one:
- Bratislava (BTS) is a 70-minute, €7.90 bus ride from Vienna Hauptbahnhof, and Ryanair has 35 routes there.
- Bucharest-Baneasa (BBU) is 5.3 miles out, closer than any London airport.
- Milan-Bergamo (BGY) is 31 miles from the center and Malpensa (MXP) is 28, so the “real” Milan airport is barely nearer, and the Bergamo bus is €5 against €15 for the Malpensa Express.
- Rome-Ciampino flips the usual story completely. It is 9.3 miles from the center, closer than Fiumicino, and Trenitalia’s Ciampino Airlink combination is €2.70 against €14 for the Leonardo Express.
- Warsaw-Modlin (WMI) has 52 Ryanair routes against 19 at Chopin (WAW), and the integrated rail ticket is 20 PLN.
Cities where Ryanair now flies to the main airport as well
This is the part of the story that has changed most in the last few years. Ryanair is no longer a secondary-airport-only airline. It now flies to the main airport in all of these cities:
- Alicante
- Barcelona El Prat (BCN)
- Berlin
- Bologna (BLQ)
- Bucharest-Otopeni (OTP)
- Glasgow (GLA)
- Hamburg (HAM)
- Krakow (KRK)
- Manchester (MAN)
- Marseille (MRS)
- Milan-Malpensa
- Naples (NAP)
- Palermo (PMO)
- Prague (PRG)
- Rome-Fiumicino
- Stockholm-Arlanda
- Toulouse (TLS)
- Turin (TRN)
- Valencia (VLC)
- Venice-Marco Polo (VCE)
- Vienna (VIE)
- Vilnius (VNO)
- Warsaw-Chopin
So the practical rule is not “Ryanair uses the far airport.” It is “check which airport this specific flight number uses, because Ryanair may serve both.”
Airports Ryanair does not touch at all
- Dusseldorf
- Florence
- Frankfurt Main
- London-Heathrow
- Lyon
- Milan-Linate
- Munich
- Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly
- Stockholm-Skavsta (NYO)
- Stuttgart
- Zurich and Geneva
Amsterdam-Schiphol (AMS) is technically served but only on 2 routes, Malaga and Dublin (DUB), so for practical purposes Eindhoven is the Dutch Ryanair airport with 38.
How to work out whether the cheap fare is actually cheap
Add these to the fare before you compare it to anything:
- The transfer cost both ways
- The transfer time both ways
- The extra hotel night if the last transfer of the day leaves before your flight lands
- The cost of a missed connection you cannot rebook because the two flights are on separate tickets
- Your carry-on bag, which you may have to pay for based on the fare you buy and the size of your bag
Two of those bite non-revs specifically. A €19 fare to Girona plus €44 of bus is a €63 ticket, and if the bus does not line up with your standby departure the next morning, add the cost of a room.
Girona is the one I have walked through on camera, because it is the clearest case of the transfer being the real cost. The bus, the train and the drive to Barcelona, Girona city and the Costa Brava are all in this guide, with times and prices for each.
If you are flying out of London on a paid ticket, the UK departure tax is its own line item, and these eight ways to avoid UK Air Passenger Duty are worth reading before you book.
What the London Ryanair airports are actually like
Stansted is where 142 of Ryanair’s routes live, and the terminal is built around one decision that shapes the whole experience: you wait in a single enormous hall instead of at your gate, and the gate number comes late. This is pretty typical for most UK airports though. On a night of French air traffic control action and thunderstorms, that hall is where everyone ends up. I walked the whole place on a Saturday evening.
I have now flown out of all six London airports, and my Ryanair flight out of Southend (SEN) went to Vilnius on a 737-800. Southend is no longer in the Ryanair network, which is a reminder that the London airport list is not fixed either. Here is that flight, and a Stansted to Bologna review on the same aircraft type.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ryanair fly to Heathrow?
No. Ryanair has no Heathrow routes. Its London airports are Stansted with 142 routes, Luton (LTN) with 33 and Gatwick (LGW) with 4.
Which Paris airport does Ryanair use?
Beauvais, with 68 routes, plus two routes at Vatry (XCR). Ryanair serves neither Charles de Gaulle nor Orly. Beauvais is about 47 miles from Paris; there is a shuttle to Porte Maillot in the city of Paris. It takes about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Does Ryanair still fly to Frankfurt?
Only to Frankfurt-Hahn, 79 miles away by road, on 31 routes.
Is Ryanair’s Rome airport far from the city?
No, and this is the exception. Rome-Ciampino is 9.3 miles from central Rome, closer than Fiumicino, and the cheapest official route in is Trenitalia’s Ciampino Airlink at €2.70. Ryanair serves Rome-Fiumicino too, on 57 routes.
Does Ryanair fly to Stockholm-Skavsta?
Not anymore. Ryanair closed its Skavsta base in March 2020 and exited the airport in late 2021. Its Stockholm airports are now Arlanda, with 47 routes, and Vasteras, with 3.
Which Ryanair airport is farthest from the city it is sold as serving?
Frankfurt-Hahn is the longest haul in this list at 127 km (79 miles) by road, followed by Oslo-Torp at 119 km (74 miles) and Stockholm-Vasteras at 110 km (68 miles). Rimini (RMI) for Bologna and Katowice (KTW) for Krakow are in the same range, at roughly 71 and 66 miles.
Can I connect between two Ryanair flights at these airports?
Two flights booked separately are two separate tickets, so a late first flight is your problem, not the airline’s. Treat a same-city airport change as a separate trip, build in the published transfer time both ways, and check whether the last transfer of the day still runs when your inbound lands.
Why is Ryanair cutting flights in Germany?
Ryanair says German access costs are the reason. The German aviation tax has more than doubled since 2019 and security fees have doubled and air traffic control fees have tripled. It’s important to note that you can still use Ryanair at BER; the aircraft are just based outside Germany. As a passenger it won’t change for you.
More Ryanair on the CruisinAltitude channel
- Ireland’s tallest building is a control tower: Ryanair night landing at Dublin
- Passengers deplaning a Ryanair MAX 8-200 at London Gatwick, airstairs and a remote stand
- You can tell which wing you are on by the light, Stansted to Dublin at dusk
- Ryanair brought Buzz to Dublin
- Why I love flying the Ryanair MAX 8-200, a thunderstorm delay and the sky that came with it
- Ryanair 737-800 taxiing into the gate at London Gatwick
Subscribe on YouTube for the airport guides and flight reviews as they go up.
Route counts and airport pairs here are a snapshot of the Ryanair schedule as of September 2026. Fares and journey times were captured from official airport and transport operator pages in September 2026 and change with the season and the booking date. Always confirm the airport code on your own booking before you plan the ground leg.