Secondary Airport

A secondary airport is a smaller or less central airport serving a metropolitan area alongside a primary major airport. Secondary airports typically offer lower costs, less congestion, and faster processing, making them attractive to low-cost carriers and budget-conscious travelers willing to accept a less convenient location.

What Is a Secondary Airport?

Most large metropolitan areas have at least one major gateway airport and one or more secondary airports. London has Heathrow as its primary hub and Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Southend, and City airports as secondary options. Paris has Charles de Gaulle as the primary hub and Orly and Beauvais as secondary airports. New York has JFK and Newark as the primary airports, with Long Island MacArthur and others in secondary roles. Secondary airports typically serve shorter-haul and low-cost markets, have lower landing fees, and offer quicker ground operations.

How It Works in Practice

Low-cost carriers have built business models around secondary airports. Ryanair made London Stansted its primary base, negotiating favorable cost structures with the airport and building a network of European routes from a facility that was significantly cheaper to operate from than Heathrow or Gatwick. Similarly, Ryanair uses Frankfurt Hahn rather than Frankfurt Main, Paris Beauvais rather than CDG, and Girona rather than Barcelona El Prat. The cost savings from secondary airport fees and faster turnarounds allow LCCs to offer lower fares, attracting price-sensitive passengers willing to accept the additional ground transport to the city center. easyJet has taken a different approach, targeting primary airports to attract business travelers alongside leisure customers.

Why It Matters

Secondary airports are essential infrastructure for low-cost aviation and for cities whose primary airport is congested or slot-constrained. They provide competitive pressure that keeps fares lower across a metropolitan area and offer communities in surrounding regions their own access point to the air transport network without traveling to the primary city airport.

Key Facts and Figures

• London Stansted handled over 28 million passengers in 2023, demonstrating that secondary airports can achieve substantial scale
• Secondary airports typically charge landing fees 30 to 60 percent lower than primary airports in the same metropolitan area
• Passenger growth at secondary airports has outpaced primary airports in many European markets since 2000
• Ground transport time from city center to secondary airport averages 60 to 90 minutes, compared to 30 to 45 minutes for primary airports

Related Concepts

Focus City, Point-to-Point Model, Low-Cost Carrier, Primary Airport, Hub Airport