What an open-jaw trip is, why it rarely costs more on low-cost airlines, and how to find one. Out of Glasgow Prestwick and home to Glasgow, or out of Manchester and home to Liverpool, from £27.
Written By Rick Blyth
Happiest at 36,000ft as the sun rises above the clouds
15 min read
Published on 28/10/2026
What if you flew home to a different airport, one close to the one you flew out from? You'd open up far more trips, and often cheaper ones.
It's called an open-jaw trip: out of one airport, home to another. On low-cost airlines it usually costs nothing extra, because every flight is priced on its own.
So if you live between two airports, you can use both. Say you're somewhere between Manchester and Liverpool, 24 miles apart, or between Glasgow and Edinburgh, 42 miles apart.
Let the trip come home to either one, and you'll see trips you'd never find from one airport alone.
Here's a real one. Glasgow Prestwick and Glasgow Airport are 26 miles apart:
🛫 The route: out of Prestwick to Málaga for 2 nights, then home to Glasgow.
✈️ Flights: £37 per person, in December.
MálagaFrom Glasgow Prestwick, home to Glasgow · 2 nightsSearch trips from£37Travel sites use three names for it. Here's what each one means, with a real trip of ours.
You fly out of one airport and home to one near it. The trip abroad is the same; only the airport at the home end changes. This is the one this article is about.
Out of Manchester, two nights in Tenerife, and home to Liverpool: £27 in December.
TenerifeFrom Manchester, home to Liverpool · 2 nightsSearch trips from£27You fly into one city and home from another. On a classic open-jaw ticket, you make your own way between the two.
Add a flight between them and it's a multi-city trip: three flights, two cities, and home to the airport you left from. Here's one from Bristol, into Barcelona and home from Turin:
Barcelona and TurinFrom Bristol · 4 nights in allSearch trips from£41Out of one airport, into one city, home from another city, and home to the airport down the road. It sounds complicated, but the search does the joining up.
Out of Manchester, a night in Málaga, two in Marrakech, and home to Liverpool: £44 in November.
Málaga and MarrakechFrom Manchester, home to Liverpool · 3 nights in allSearch trips from£44Say you insist on flying home to the airport you left from. Then you rule out every trip whose best flight home lands somewhere else.
Allow a nearby airport at one end, and more trips appear, on more dates. Out of Stansted and home to Luton alone, we found 9,896 city breaks of 2 to 4 nights this winter.
It matters most at smaller airports in winter, when there are fewer flights to choose from. Sometimes a search comes back thin, and there are more trips using a nearby airport. When that happens, ours tells you so, and lets you add that airport with one tap.
Each flight is priced on its own. So you can take the cheapest way out and the cheapest way back, wherever they land.
If coming home to the other airport costs less, the search can show you how much you save.
Say you see two cities on a there-and-back trip. You have to go back to the first city to fly home. See them on two separate breaks instead, and that's four flights.
Fly home from the second city, and it's three flights in all. The Barcelona and Turin trip from Bristol never goes back the way it came.
Europe Unlocked searches city breaks and multi-city trips from 23 airports in the UK and Ireland. You book each flight directly with the airline.
Every airport page with a neighbour has an "Airports near" section. Here are some of the pairs we search:
There are more. Southampton and Bournemouth are 24 miles apart. Edinburgh and Glasgow are 42, and Leeds Bradford and Manchester are 43.
Each pair on an airport page comes with two buttons:
In the search itself, choose your airport, then use Add Airport to add a nearby one. Any trip that comes home somewhere else says so on the trip, with the distance. For example, "Home to Cardiff · 27 mi from Bristol".
Try our multi-city search. Every trip flies you into one city, on to the next and home from the last. You get a night or more in each city you stay in.
Here are some, cheapest first, each in 4 nights or fewer:
Add a city to see only the trips that visit it. Or add a nearby airport as well, and you have a double open jaw.
📬 Free · Every Sunday
Each email has the best-value trips from Manchester for the following two weeks, found and priced for you.
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To: you
An open jaw means one airport on the way out and another on the way home, so plan both journeys before you book.
If you're driving, add the nearby airport and tick one box.
Return to the airport I leave from (for parking)
You still see trips from both airports, but every one comes home to the airport it left from, so you land where you parked.
You book each flight directly with the airline, so each one is its own ticket. If a delay on one flight makes you miss the next, the next airline doesn't have to help. To them, you simply didn't turn up.
The airline that let you down owes you what the rules say for its own flight. It owes you nothing for the next one.
That's why every multi-city trip in our search gives you a night or more, and at least 12 hours, in each city you stay in. An ordinary delay costs you some sightseeing, not your next flight.
Check your travel insurance covers a missed flight on separate tickets; not every policy does. And book all the flights in one sitting, as budget fares move quickly.
Three flights can mean two or three airlines. Each has its own cabin bag size and its own price for anything bigger.
Pack to the smallest allowance on the trip, not the first one. Our FAQ has a rough guide to the main low-cost airlines. But rules change, so check each airline before you pack.
📌 Key points
- An open-jaw trip flies you out of one airport and home to another, or into one city and home from another.
- On low-cost airlines it usually costs nothing extra, because every flight is priced on its own.
- Out of Glasgow Prestwick, two nights in Málaga came home to Glasgow for £37 in flights.
- Driving? Tick "Return to the airport I leave from" and every trip comes home to where you parked.
- You book each flight directly with the airline, so a missed connection isn't protected.
It's a trip that doesn't come back the way it went. The gap can be at home, out of one airport and home to another, which is an origin open jaw. Or it can be abroad, into one city and home from another, which is a destination open jaw. Both at once is a double open jaw.
On low-cost airlines you book each flight on its own, so any trip can be an open jaw.
On low-cost airlines, usually not. A return is two one-way fares added together. So flying home from somewhere else costs what that flight costs.
Sometimes it's cheaper. That's when the best flight home leaves from the other city, or lands at the other airport.
Yes, for pairs like Bristol and Cardiff, or Manchester and Liverpool. Search both airports at once from either airport's page. Every trip shows where it lands.
Pick your airport, add the one down the road, and see what opens up. Search trips from your airport, or read how two cities in one trip work.
Prices were found between the 23rd and the 30th of October 2026: flights only, per person, rounded up to the next pound. Fares change every day, so search for today's.
Two Cities in One Trip: How Multi-City Breaks Work, and Why They Can Cost LessHow multi-city breaks work, and why flying on to a second city can cost less.
How to Book Multi-City Flights in Europe: Three Ways to Find the CheapestThree ways to find the flights, and a checklist for booking them.
Booking Separate Flights for a City Break: The Honest Guide to the RisksWhat booking each flight yourself means, and how to keep the risk small.Photos, cropped and framed: Bristol Airport by Captain Galaxy (CC BY 4.0); Cardiff Airport by Lewis Clarke (CC BY-SA 2.0); Liverpool Airport by Andrzej Otrębski (CC BY-SA 4.0); London Luton Airport by Thomas Nugent (CC BY-SA 2.0); Glasgow Airport by DaHuzyBru (CC BY-SA 4.0); Glasgow Prestwick Airport by Billy McCrorie (CC BY-SA 2.0); Birmingham Airport by Thomas Nugent (CC BY-SA 2.0); East Midlands Airport by Stephen McKay (CC BY-SA 2.0)
