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    Low-cost carriers charge less for tickets because they provide fewer services to passengers, and charge more for other things such as baggage, hold luggage, seat reservations, etc. Their Terms & Conditions will be more restrictive and less flexible for travelers. That's how they make money. Why do you think or expect that a low-cost carrier would treat you better than a conventional carrier? Commented Jun 27, 2022 at 14:02
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    My understanding is that the logic airlines use to justify cancelling a return if you do not take the outbound flight is that sometimes the package is cheaper as a whole - i.e. an outbound and return can cost less than just a single leg. Thus if you cancel, you disincentivise people from trying to use only leg of the return. This logic typically will not apply for low-cost carriers since each leg is priced completely independently - there is no incentive to cheat the system by taking only one leg of a return ticket. Commented Jun 27, 2022 at 14:35
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    @NeilTarrant Interesting: I just reviewed Easyjet's and Ryanair's T&Cs, and neither contains the "return cancelled if passenger misses outbound flight" language we're speaking about. I don't know if the reason is as you state, but the T&Cs of these low-cost carriers provide no automatic cancellation for missing the first flight of a return itinerary. Commented Jun 27, 2022 at 17:36
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    It is my understanding (but I haven’t checked the details and I don’t remember if I was ever in that situation) that “real” LCCs like Easyjet and Ryanair indeed do not care if you miss a flight, as they just sell independent point-to-point flights, and with the exception of booking/transactions fees, the total is just the same if booked separately or together. They do not have to protect against customers trying to trick the (awfully complex) system of incumbents with hidden-city ticketing, crossed returns, and whatnot. This may be different for some incumbents-turned-LCCs. Commented Jun 27, 2022 at 21:40
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    From my personal experience with Ryanair and EasyJet, there's no concept of a combined itinerary. When you buy return tickets, you are actually buying two independent tickets. But note that, all the answers here would be out of personal experiences. Every carrier will have its own business model. So it's best to review the T&Cs before you plan to skip the leg. Better yet, most of them have online chat support, where you shall get definitive answers. Commented Jun 28, 2022 at 22:20