Changing airports on two separate tickets.

Yes, after most international flights. There is no way from one airport to another without entering the country, so you pass passport control and customs at the first airport, and that country’s visa or travel authorisation rules apply to you however short the stay. Check them on the official site before you book the second flight: GOV.UK for the UK, the State Department’s travel.state.gov for the US (or CBP’s ESTA site if you travel visa-free as a Visa Waiver traveller), evisa.gov.tr for Türkiye, u.ae for the UAE, the Bureau of Immigration for India and France-Visas for France.

Not on separate tickets: you collect every checked bag at the first airport and check it in again at the second. On one booking that changes airports, go by the airline’s instructions for your itinerary; JFK’s guide for New York, for example, has travellers reclaim their bags where they land and hand them over afresh to the next airline.

It is the label Google Flights gives to what it calls virtual interlines, sold by some of its online travel agency partners: flights from airlines with no codeshare or interline agreement, put together as one trip. Google says these self-transfer fares generally mean collecting and rechecking your bags, checking in for each flight separately and giving up the benefits of the airlines talking to each other. Each flight is its own booking, so if the two use different airports, the crossing between them is yours to arrange.

Under UK rules, the Civil Aviation Authority says a self-transfer gives you no statutory right to care, compensation or transport to your final destination if a delay makes you miss a flight, although each flight keeps its own entitlements. Rules elsewhere differ, so read the conditions of both tickets. Tell the booking desk as soon as you know of a problem: if the airline cancels or diverts your arriving flight, or moves it to the next day, the transfer booking is generally treated as a no-show, subject to the applicable service terms.

Add up four blocks and keep some in hand: the border and the baggage hall at the first airport, the road, your onward airline’s check-in cut-off, and a buffer. For the road, the operators’ own figures are a starting point: Heathrow times the coaches to Gatwick, about 42 miles away by road, at 70 to 75 minutes; a taxi or shuttle from JFK to Newark commonly takes about 60 to 100 minutes by JFK’s estimate; Havaist times its bus between Istanbul’s airports at about 120 minutes; and Paris Aéroport puts the train from CDG to Orly at about 1 hour 15 minutes. For scale, the transit guides at BOM and NMI advise three to four hours at the least for an international connection through either airport, before any drive across the harbour.

Yes, for a light traveller with a generous gap. Direct coaches link Heathrow and Gatwick, Havaist lists a bus between Istanbul’s two airports, Dubai Airports describes a metro and bus link between DXB and DWC, and Paris Aéroport lists two rail routes from CDG to Orly. With heavy bags, children, a late landing or a tight window, a car is simpler, because it goes from one terminal to the other without a change.

For part of the way. Dubai Airports sends you on the Dubai Metro as far as Ibn Battuta station, where a dedicated bus takes over for the run to Al Maktoum, and DWC’s own site describes the same link heading for DXB. It suits a light traveller with time in hand; with a lot of luggage, a taxi or a terminal to terminal transfer goes straight across.

Yes, within the waiting time. Your arriving flight is tracked and the pickup moves with it, and your chauffeur waits 30 minutes from your flight’s actual arrival time. If the border queue or the baggage hall runs slow, let the booking desk know on WhatsApp; waiting beyond the included time may carry a charge, and the policy and any charge are explained to you before it is applied.

Any commercial airport can be quoted, so for a crossing between two nearby airports, send both airports and both flights. The six pairs on this page each have a city guide on this site, with more on the airports themselves and their terminals.

The price depends on distance, vehicle class and add-ons such as a child seat, plus any late-night, public holiday or short-notice charges. You see the full quote before you pay, and nothing is charged until you accept it. Any tolls on your route are either included in that quote or shown in it as an additional charge, heavy traffic does not change the quoted price, and waiting beyond the included time may carry a charge.