Edinburgh at a glance
Edinburgh Airport has flights to well over 150 destinations, from short hops to London and Dublin to non-stop flights across the Atlantic and to the Gulf. Ryanair, easyJet and Jet2 carry most passengers to Europe, while airlines including Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, United, Delta, American and Air Canada fly long-haul.
We checked routes in October 2026. Many routes, especially to North America and the Mediterranean, are summer-only, and airlines add and drop routes every season. Check the airline or the airport's own destinations page before you plan around a particular flight.
Long-haul: the USA and Canada
Edinburgh has more transatlantic choice than any other Scottish airport, though most of it runs from spring to autumn:
- New York: Delta, JetBlue and American have flown to JFK, and United flies to Newark. American's JFK service, flown with a new long-range narrow-body jet, started in March 2026. See our New York guide.
- Boston: Delta, seasonally.
- Washington DC and Chicago: United, seasonally.
- Atlanta: Delta, seasonally, with onward connections across the US.
- Philadelphia: American, which has extended the route to run year-round.
- Toronto and Montreal: Air Canada, with Montreal added from September 2026.
Flights to the east coast of the US take around 7 to 8 hours outbound. For anywhere else in North America, these hubs connect onwards, so you can often avoid a change in London.
Long-haul: the Middle East and beyond
For Asia, Africa and Australia, the Gulf and Istanbul are the easiest connections:
- Dubai: Emirates flies daily, around 7 hours. Dubai is worth a stop in its own right between November and March.
- Doha: Qatar Airways, connecting to its huge network across Asia, Africa and Australia.
- Istanbul: Turkish Airlines, connecting to more countries than almost any other airline.
These make Edinburgh a practical starting point for trips like Sri Lanka, the Maldives or Bali, with a single change.
City breaks in Europe
Ryanair alone runs 46 routes from Edinburgh this winter, and easyJet and Jet2 add many more. Year-round city routes include:
New for winter 2026: Ryanair adds Milan, Tirana and Warsaw from 1 November, and Jet2 starts Strasbourg, handy for its Christmas markets. In 2026, easyJet also started Ljubljana, Scotland's only direct link to Slovenia, and Luxair now flies to Luxembourg twice a week.
See the best places for a 3-day city break to compare them.
Winter sun
Jet2, easyJet and Ryanair all fly from Edinburgh to the sun in winter. The main choices are:
- The Canary Islands: Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura, around 4.5 to 5 hours from Scotland and the warmest choice in Europe in winter.
- Southern Spain and Portugal: Málaga, Alicante and Faro, around 3 hours, mild rather than hot.
See where is hot in Europe in February for how they compare.
Snow, skiing and the northern lights
Edinburgh is well placed for winter trips north and to the Alps:
- Tromsø: easyJet starts flying from 30 November 2026, twice a week, which makes a northern lights trip from Scotland much easier.
- Geneva, for Chamonix and the French and Swiss Alps.
- Verona, which Jet2 has added for skiing in the Italian Dolomites, and which is also the gateway to Lake Garda in summer.
Our February half term post has more ideas for a snowy week away.
Getting to Edinburgh Airport
The airport is about 8 miles west of the city centre.
- Tram: runs from the airport to the city centre in roughly 30 to 35 minutes, from early morning to late evening.
- Airlink 100 bus: around 30 minutes to Waverley Bridge, depending on traffic, and runs around the clock.
- Train: Edinburgh Gateway station, a short tram ride from the airport, has trains to Fife and the north.
For an early flight, the 24-hour Airlink bus is often the only public transport option. Fares change, so check before you travel.
Choosing where to go from Edinburgh
With this much choice, start with the time of year and the kind of trip you want. Our month pages, like where to go in May, show what's at its best when. If you're deciding as a family or group, put the Edinburgh options you like on a shared list and let everyone vote with points. That's how somewhere🎉 works.
