Cheap flights from Leeds to London

December is the month where this route runs cheapest, so if your dates can move, point them there first. The fare calendar covers October through August, tracing the arc from late autumn into high summer, and outside December the weeks around Christmas and New Year plus the school holidays are where seats thin out first.

Midweek departures tend to price below the Friday-out, Sunday-back pattern of leisure travel, and early departures dodge the heavy connection traffic at the hubs. Book summer trips well ahead; for a December break, watching the calendar for a while usually turns up a fare worth taking.

The first difference you feel is not the service on board but the fare structure: Easyjet and Jet2 sell the seat on its own and treat bags and seat selection as paid extras, while KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Aer Lingus and regional operator Emerald Airlines tend to fold more of the basics into the ticket.

What nobody on this list offers is a nonstop, because the schedules hold no direct flights between Leeds/Bradford and the London airports, so every booking routes through a connection. Judge each option on total journey time rather than the base fare alone, since a long wait between planes can undo a small saving.

Decide how you will get into town before you land, because your itinerary can end at any of London's five airports and they are far from interchangeable. London City sits in the Docklands close to the centre, while Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted all lie outside the city, each with its own rail or coach link to central London.

Check the onward connection from your specific airport while you are still at home, since some are served by fast trains and others by buses and shuttle rides, and leave generous time for the trip in. Watch the return leg too: with five fields in play, the airport you fly out from will not always be the one you arrived at.

Currency

GBP (£)

Power sockets

Type G · 230 V

Language

English

Emergency number

112, 999

Calling code

+44

Internet domain

.uk

Population of London

8.8 M (2021)

Time zone

UTC+01 (Europe/London)

Country facts: Wikidata

• Every itinerary on this route involves a change of planes, so check the connection time before you book.
• If you are buying two separate tickets rather than one, the second airline will not rebook you when the first leg runs late.
• Baggage costs extra on Easyjet and Jet2, so price a bag into the total before you compare them with KLM or Aer Lingus.
• Check which of London's five airports your itinerary ends at, since the ride into central London differs sharply between them.
• This is a domestic trip within the United Kingdom, so border paperwork is not an issue, though some airlines ask for photo ID.
• December is the low point of the fare calendar, so shift your dates there if they can move.