Edinburgh Airport to City Centre (Princes Street / Waverley)

Bus or tram: the actual difference

On paper the Airlink 100 and the tram look like rivals. In practice they serve slightly different travellers. Airlink is the cheaper of the two at £6.00 for an adult single and £8.50 for an open return, and it runs 24 hours a day: up to every 10 minutes from 04:12 until 01:00, then up to every 20 minutes through the night. It takes about 30 minutes to its terminus at Waverley Bridge, which sits between Princes Street and Waverley station.

The tram costs £7.90 for the Airport Single, or £7.50 if you buy it in advance at edinburghticket.com. The open return is £9.50 (£9.25 online). It runs every 7 minutes for most of the day and takes about 30 minutes to the city centre, but the timetable is shorter: the first tram leaves the airport at 06:30 and the last at 22:52. If your flight lands at 22:30 and you still have to clear passport control, plan on the bus.

The deciding factor is often where your hotel is. The tram runs along Princes Street and calls at West End, Princes Street, St Andrew Square and Picardy Place, so for the New Town, the east end of George Street or the St James Quarter it can leave you closer. Airlink finishes at Waverley Bridge, which is better for the station, the Old Town and anywhere south of Princes Street.

Finding each stop

Walk out of arrivals onto the plaza with the large 'Edinburgh' sign. Airlink leaves from Stop A next to the plaza; the tram stop is right beside it. On the bus you pay the driver by contactless (Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay) or exact cash. American Express is not accepted, which catches out a fair number of visitors. For the tram you must have a ticket before you board: use the machines at the stop, an app, or tap your contactless card on the platform reader and again when you get off.

One trap: a standard city-zone tram ticket (£2.40) is not valid from the airport. The airport zone is priced separately, and inspectors do check.

The meter, explained

Capital Cars holds the taxi concession and runs the rank in the East Terminus, a short walk across the plaza. A booking is required under council private hire rules, either online or at the rank desk, and fares inside the city follow the City of Edinburgh Council tariff. From 25 July 2026 that means an initial charge of £3.60 on weekdays between 06:00 and 18:00, or £4.80 in the evenings and at weekends, then 30p for each short increment of distance or waiting time. Working that through for the 13 km to Princes Street gives roughly £27 with clear roads; reckon on up to about £35 when the A8 and Corstorphine Road are slow. A fourth passenger adds 50p.

Pre-booked private transfers to the city centre are listed from about £43 for a standard car seating three, rising to around £58–66 for an estate or people carrier. The appeal here is a fixed price agreed in advance, which matters more to people arriving with children and car seats than to a couple with two cases.

What the half-hour actually looks like

Both routes head east from Ingliston. The tram runs past Gogarburn and Edinburgh Park and on past the stadium at Murrayfield, much of it on its own track, before reaching the streets at Haymarket. The bus stays on the main road, calling at Maybury, Edinburgh Zoo and Haymarket before Shandwick Place and Waverley Bridge. On a weekday morning the tram tends to be the more predictable of the two; on a quiet Sunday the bus is often a few minutes quicker. On rugby international days at Murrayfield, both are much busier than usual and road journey times stretch.

Arriving in the small hours

Edinburgh is better than most British airports for very late arrivals because Airlink never stops. Between 01:15 and 04:00 it drops to up to every 20 minutes, but it still runs, at the same £6.00 fare. The tram will have finished by then. Taxis keep working at the rank throughout the night on the evening tariff.

Bags, prams and groups

Both bus and tram are built for luggage. Every tram has six luggage racks, including space for large cases, and two wheelchair spaces in the middle carriage. For a family, the Airlink family return at £22.00 covers two adults and up to three children, and children under five travel free with a fare-paying adult on Lothian services. For three or four adults heading to the same address, a taxi at around £30 works out not far off three bus returns, and it ends at the door.

Coming back, remember that Airlink leaves Waverley Bridge from 03:40, early enough for the first wave of morning departures, while the first tram from Newhaven leaves at 05:20, which suits mid-morning flights better than the earliest ones.