Scotland's two big airports sit just 41 miles (67 km) apart in a straight line: Edinburgh (EDI) west of the capital and Glasgow (GLA) west of Glasgow. Is Edinburgh now the better choice for everything except the islands? This guide checks against flights we actually saw depart both airports between 16 September and 16 October 2026, using flight records from AeroDataBox. The window catches the tail of the summer season, so some seasonal transatlantic routes still show up.
The short answer
We counted only routes flown by scheduled passenger airlines at least nine times in the 30 days (roughly twice a week or more):
| Edinburgh (EDI) | Glasgow (GLA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Destinations | 134 | 70 |
| Countries | 43 | 22 |
| Flights in 30 days | 5,837 | 3,219 |
| Routes flown every day of the week | 59 | 32 |
| North American routes | 10 | 2 |
| Furthest destination | Beijing, 4,931 miles (7,935 km) | Dubai, 3,629 miles (5,841 km) |
| Share of flights to sun destinations | 24% | 31% |
Distances are great-circle figures between airport coordinates (our calculation). "Sun destinations" means Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Cape Verde, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Bulgaria.
Three conclusions:
- Edinburgh is the bigger network by almost every measure. It had nearly twice the destinations and about 80% more flights. That matches the passenger counts: Edinburgh handled about 17.0 million passengers in 2025, sixth in the UK, against about 8.2 million at Glasgow, ninth (Wikipedia, citing CAA data).
- Glasgow is not a smaller copy of Edinburgh. 14 of its 70 destinations were not flown from Edinburgh at least nine times, and on several shared holiday routes Glasgow had more flights.
- For the United States, Edinburgh is the answer in almost every case. Glasgow's transatlantic list was Newark and Toronto.
Both route networks are on a map: Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The busiest routes from each airport
Counts are flights we observed in the 30 days. Every route in these tables ran on all seven days of the week.
Edinburgh
| Destination | Flights in 30 days | Airlines seen |
|---|---|---|
| Dublin | 454 | Aer Lingus, Ryanair |
| London Heathrow | 351 | British Airways |
| Amsterdam | 214 | KLM, easyJet |
| London Stansted | 201 | easyJet, Ryanair |
| Paris Charles de Gaulle | 197 | Air France, easyJet |
| Belfast International | 180 | easyJet, Ryanair |
| Copenhagen | 133 | easyJet, Norwegian, Ryanair, SAS |
| Bristol | 120 | easyJet |
| Belfast City | 116 | Aer Lingus |
| Palma de Mallorca | 116 | British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair, TUI |
| Frankfurt | 103 | Lufthansa |
| Tenerife South | 103 | easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair |
| New York JFK | 103 | American, Delta, JetBlue |
Glasgow
| Destination | Flights in 30 days | Airlines seen |
|---|---|---|
| London Heathrow | 287 | British Airways |
| Dublin | 266 | Aer Lingus, Ryanair |
| London Gatwick | 159 | easyJet |
| Amsterdam | 137 | KLM, easyJet |
| Belfast International | 129 | easyJet |
| Bristol | 111 | easyJet |
| Malaga | 107 | easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair, TUI |
| Palma de Mallorca | 103 | British Airways, easyJet, Jet2, TUI |
| Stornoway | 90 | Loganair |
| Alicante | 90 | easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair, TUI |
The airline mix is the real difference. Ryanair appeared on 63 of Edinburgh's 134 routes but only 8 of Glasgow's 70. Glasgow is built on easyJet (31 routes), Jet2 (30), TUI (19) and Loganair (10). That is why Glasgow looks like a holiday airport and Edinburgh looks like a city-break and business airport.
Transatlantic and long haul
This is where the gap is widest. Every North American route we saw at least nine times:
| Route | Flights in 30 days | Airlines seen | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edinburgh to New York JFK | 103 | American, Delta, JetBlue | 3,247 mi (5,225 km) |
| Edinburgh to Boston | 69 | Delta, JetBlue | 3,061 mi (4,925 km) |
| Edinburgh to Toronto | 47 | Air Canada, WestJet | 3,320 mi (5,344 km) |
| Edinburgh to Newark | 34 | United | 3,259 mi (5,245 km) |
| Edinburgh to Philadelphia | 34 | American | 3,339 mi (5,374 km) |
| Edinburgh to Washington Dulles | 34 | United | 3,468 mi (5,581 km) |
| Edinburgh to Chicago O'Hare | 34 | United | 3,701 mi (5,957 km) |
| Edinburgh to Atlanta | 34 | Delta | 4,000 mi (6,438 km) |
| Edinburgh to Calgary | 13 | WestJet | 4,049 mi (6,516 km) |
| Edinburgh to Orlando | 13 | Virgin Atlantic | 4,158 mi (6,691 km) |
| Glasgow to Newark | 26 | United | 3,220 mi (5,182 km) |
| Glasgow to Toronto | 26 | Air Transat | 3,283 mi (5,284 km) |
Edinburgh's North American routes added up to 415 flights in the window against Glasgow's 52. Below our nine-flight cut we also saw end-of-season flights from Glasgow to Boston (United), Orlando Melbourne and Cancun (both TUI), and from Edinburgh to Halifax (WestJet), four each.
Which of these are seasonal? Most of them. Wikipedia's airline list for Edinburgh marks Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, Calgary, Halifax and Orlando as seasonal, with Newark and Washington Dulles listed as year-round (Wikipedia). American's JFK service, flown with a 155-seat A321XLR, was scheduled daily from 8 March to 24 October 2026, and its Philadelphia route from 28 March to 24 October (Edinburgh Airport). For why that narrow-body aircraft makes thinner transatlantic routes possible, see our piece on the A321XLR and long, thin routes. At Glasgow, United's Newark flight and TUI's Cancun and Florida flights are listed as seasonal (Wikipedia).
The practical rule: if you are flying to the US between November and March, check whether your Edinburgh route is still running. In summer, Edinburgh's US choice is the widest in Scotland by a long way.
The Gulf and Asia. Both airports had Emirates to Dubai, 34 flights each (daily). Only Edinburgh had Qatar Airways to Doha (69 flights, about twice a day) and Hainan Airlines to Beijing (26 flights). Outside North America and the Gulf, Glasgow's longest routes were the Red Sea resorts: Sharm El Sheikh (17) and Hurghada (13).
What only Edinburgh has
74 of Edinburgh's destinations had no scheduled flight from Glasgow at all, totaling 2,057 flights. The ones that matter most:
| Type of trip | Only from Edinburgh (flights in 30 days) |
|---|---|
| US and Canada | New York JFK (103), Philadelphia (34), Washington Dulles (34), Chicago (34), Atlanta (34), Calgary (13), Orlando (13) |
| Hubs for connections | Frankfurt (103), Doha (69), Istanbul (64), Munich (51), Zurich (47), Helsinki (26) |
| Nordic capitals | Copenhagen (133), Oslo (56), Stockholm Arlanda (43), Bergen (13), Billund (13) |
| City breaks | Madrid (77), Geneva (60), Nice (39), Budapest (39), Brussels (34), Venice (26), Vienna (21), Athens (21) |
Boston is missing from the table only because Glasgow had four end-of-season flights there. For Nordic travellers this table is the headline: if you are flying from Copenhagen, Oslo or Stockholm to Scotland nonstop, you are flying to Edinburgh.
What only Glasgow has
Glasgow had 14 destinations that Edinburgh did not fly at least nine times:
| From Glasgow | Flights in 30 days | Airline |
|---|---|---|
| London Gatwick | 159 | easyJet |
| Barra | 60 | Loganair |
| Islay | 56 | Loganair |
| Tiree | 51 | Loganair |
| Benbecula | 47 | Loganair |
| Campbeltown | 43 | Loganair |
| Sharm El Sheikh | 17 | easyJet, TUI |
| Bodrum | 13 | Jet2 |
| Larnaca | 13 | easyJet, Jet2 |
| Split | 13 | easyJet |
| Hurghada | 13 | easyJet |
| Chania | 13 | easyJet |
| Donegal | 13 | Loganair |
| Izmir | 9 | Jet2 |
Edinburgh did fly to Bodrum and Larnaca, but only four times each in the window. Glasgow is also the stronger airport for the Northern Isles and the Outer Hebrides on shared routes: Stornoway had 90 flights from Glasgow against 34 from Edinburgh, Kirkwall 73 against 60, and Sumburgh 60 against 47.
On holiday routes, Glasgow often beats Edinburgh on frequency:
| Route | Glasgow | Edinburgh |
|---|---|---|
| Rome Fiumicino | 47 | 9 |
| Reus | 30 | 13 |
| Malaga | 107 | 81 |
| Alicante | 90 | 81 |
| Ibiza | 26 | 17 |
| Enfidha (Tunisia) | 21 | 9 |
| Menorca | 17 | 9 |
| Keflavik (Iceland) | 34 | 26 |
Getting between the two cities and airports
Edinburgh Airport is about 6 miles (9 km) west of Edinburgh city center (Wikipedia), and Glasgow Airport is about 7 miles (11 km) west of Glasgow, beside the M8 (Wikipedia).
City to city by train. The fastest trains from Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street take 44 minutes, the average is about 1 hour 6 minutes, and Trainline lists 137 trains a day (Trainline).
Glasgow city to Edinburgh Airport. The Citylink AIR 900 coach runs from Buchanan Street in Glasgow to Edinburgh Airport, up to every 20 minutes between 08:00 and 19:55 and hourly from midnight to 05:00, taking about an hour (Edinburgh Airport). By rail, direct trains between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Park take from 58 minutes (Trainline), and the airport tram stops at Edinburgh Park (Edinburgh Airport).
Edinburgh city to its airport. The tram takes about 30 minutes, every 7 minutes in the daytime, last departure from the airport 22:52 (Edinburgh Airport). The Airlink 100 bus to Waverley Bridge also takes about 30 minutes and runs overnight (Edinburgh Airport).
Glasgow city to its airport. There is no rail station at the terminal. First's Glasgow Airport Express (service 500) runs to the city center; the nearest station is Paisley Gilmour Street, reachable on foot or by the 757 bus (Wikipedia). From 29 September 2026, weekday evening 500 departures from the airport run every 15 minutes between 8pm and 10pm (First Bus).
Airport to airport. Rome2Rio estimates the drive at about 49 miles (78 km) and 53 minutes, or about 1 hour 24 minutes by Citylink to Buchanan Bus Station and then the 500 (Rome2Rio). Allow extra time at peak hours.
Drop-off fees. Edinburgh charges £8.50 for 10 minutes in its terminal drop-off zone and Glasgow £7 for 15 minutes (Auto Express). Edinburgh also has a free drop-off zone in its long-stay car park: 30 minutes from entry, then a 6 to 8 minute walk to the terminal (Edinburgh Airport). Long-stay parking prices change by date, so compare pre-book prices for your dates.
Who should not bother switching airports
- A Spanish, Portuguese or Canary Islands week from the west of Scotland. Malaga, Alicante, Palma, Tenerife, Faro and Lanzarote were all flown daily from Glasgow, and Malaga and Alicante had more flights from Glasgow than from Edinburgh.
- London, Dublin, Belfast, Amsterdam and Bristol. Both airports run these several times a day.
- Dubai. Emirates flew daily from both.
- Turkey. Dalaman and Antalya were daily from both.
Make the trip to Edinburgh for the US beyond Newark, for Doha, Beijing and Frankfurt connections, and for Nordic and Central European cities. Make the trip to Glasgow for Gatwick, the Hebrides, Rome and the Red Sea.
Reading seasonality and frequency
Divide a 30-day count by about 4.3 for a weekly frequency: 9 flights is about twice a week, 13 is three times, 30 is about daily. Low counts in this window usually mean a summer route in its final weeks, such as Edinburgh to Santorini and Kefalonia or Glasgow to Funchal (four each). For anything below daily, check the airline's timetable for your dates.
About this data
Flights were recorded by AeroDataBox and aggregated by us for departures from EDI and GLA between 16 September and 16 October 2026. "Flights in 30 days" counts flights, not seats or passengers. Destination counts include only routes where we saw a scheduled passenger airline at least nine times. We left out business jets, ad-hoc charters, cargo flights and aircraft repositioning, including UK domestic legs flown only by holiday or long-haul airlines and the short hops between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Ryanair and Ryanair UK are shown as Ryanair. Distances are great-circle calculations between airport coordinates. These two airports are among the few on our site with current observed routes; for most other airports our maps use an older archive (around 2014), so treat those as ideas and confirm with the airline.
Frequently asked questions
Does Glasgow Airport have flights to the United States?
In our window, United flew Glasgow to Newark (26 flights), and United to Boston plus TUI to Orlando Melbourne appeared only at the end of the season. Edinburgh had eight US destinations at least nine times.
Can I fly from Scandinavia to Glasgow nonstop?
Not on the routes we saw. Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Bergen and Billund were all Edinburgh only. Keflavik in Iceland was served from both.
Which airport is better for the Scottish islands?
Glasgow. It had the only flights to Barra, Islay, Tiree, Benbecula and Campbeltown, and more flights to Stornoway, Kirkwall and Sumburgh.
How often is this updated?
This article reflects the 30 days to 16 October 2026. The airport pages for Edinburgh and Glasgow show the latest observed routes. For the trade-offs of a connection, see nonstop vs connecting flights, and compare more airports with how to find direct flights.