Flying from London to Edinburgh

Latest Edinburgh - London Air Travel Information

Updated January 2010

If you can reach Central London easily to get to London's King Cross (KGX) train station or London Victoria Coach Station and don't mind a longer journey, then getting to Edinburgh by bus or by train are the cheapest options with single tickets starting at £12 (for bus) and £18.50 (for train). However, there are so many flights from all of London's airports that in many cases, flying to Edinburgh may be slightly more expensive but far more convenient.

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Airlines operating direct London - Edinburgh flights

There are currently only five airlines operating direct flights between London and Edinburgh, with only one being a cheap, no frills airline:

• EasyJet - EasyJet is the only low cost airline on this route with flights departing from Luton, Gatwick and Stansted.
• British Airways - BA, while a far cry from being a low cost airline, operate frequent daily flights to and from Edinburgh from Heathrow, Gatwick and City Airport.
• bmi - bmi also operate frequent daily flights from Heathrow to Edinburgh Turnhouse airport.
• Air France - Air France operate several daily flights from City Airport to Turnhouse airport in Edinburgh.
• Lufthansa - Lufthansa operate several daily flights from London Heathrow to Turnhouse airport in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh and London flight times and prices

• The earliest morning flights from London depart around 7.00 am and land at Turnhouse Airport in Edinburgh at roughly 8.30 am in the morning.
• The earliest morning flights from Edinburgh towards London's airports depart Turnhouse airport at 6.30 am and land in London at 07.45 am approx.

• The last evening flights from London depart around 9.00 pm and land at Turnhouse Airport in Edinburgh at roughly 10.30 pm in the evening.
• The last evening flights from Edinburgh towards London's airports depart Turnhouse airport at 9.20 pm and land in London at 10.50 pm approx.

The early morning / late evening flights are particularly handy for those on business trips but also for tourists on short breaks who want to make the most of the time they have in London or Edinburgh. Prices for these flights will vary from airline to airline and you may not be able to get the cheapest flight if you absolutely must take an early morning / late evening flight.

Flights between Edinburgh and London take roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes. This is the maximum flight time but most flights take 1 hour and 10-15 minutes approx, provided there are no significant delays on take-off / landing. Weekdays have the busiest flight timetables for all four airlines with up to 6 flights taking off every hour in either direction while weekends see some of the early morning flights scrapped.

Flight prices vary significantly from airline to airline, date and time of the day. The cheapest London-Edinburgh flights are with EasyJet, with prices starting at £53 return, if booked far enough in advance.

Airport transfers

The time and cost required to get to and from the airports in London and Edinburgh will vary.

Edinburgh Airport Transfer

Unfortunately, there is no direct train link between Edinburgh Airport and the city's train stations (Waverley and Haymarket). The most convenient option to get to and from Edinburgh Airport using public transport is using the Airlink 100 express bus service. It runs every 10 minutes, journey time is 25 minutes approx and it calls at both Haymarket and Waverley.

First bus to Edinburgh Airport from City Centre is at 04.20 am and the last bus from the airport to the City Centre is at 12.20 am. There is also a night bus N22 connecting Princes Street to Edinburgh Airport running every 30 minutes.

London Airports Transfer

There is a wide variety of options to get to and from London's airports (Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Luton and City Airport) including by bus, coach, train and taxi.

Total time to set aside for London-Edinburgh flights

Remember that when flying you also need to set aside time for check-in and transfer to and from the airport. This means that on top of the 1 hour and 10-15 minutes of the actual flight time from London to Edinburgh, you need to factor in another 2 hours at the airport itself and, depending on where you live, maybe another 1-2 hours to get to and from the airport. This means that it may actually be more convenient to travel to Edinburgh from London and back by train.

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Origin of 'Edinburgh'

Tourists have problems with the name of Edinburgh. There are hundreds of ways people write it and the most common writings include 'edinburg', 'edinborough', 'edimburgh', 'edinbourgh', 'ediburgh', 'edinbugh', 'edinboro', 'edingburgh', 'edinbrugh', 'edimburg', 'edinburugh', 'edingurgh', 'edinbrough', etc.

According to the Scottish Place Names dictionary, the name Edinburgh means 'Fort of the Rock Face'. The 'edin' part comes from Scottish Gaelic and means 'rock face', while 'burgh' comes from Old English meaning stronghold.

Some more obscure (and quite funny) ways of writing Edinburgh include: edinburough, edingburg, edinbourg, edinburh, edinurgh, edenburg, edinbough, edinbourough, edinbrgh, edingborough, edenburgh, edinberg, edinborgh, edinborugh, edinburge, edinburhg, edingbourgh, etc.

Edinburgh is spelt Edimburgo in Spanish and Italian and Édimbourg in French.

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