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Edinburgh Airport (EDI)

Last verified: October 2026 · Confirmed by travelers this month: 0

The answer
Edinburgh Trams run from inside the terminal to St Andrew Square / York Place for an Adult Airport Single £7.90 (£7.50 if you pre-purchase online — 40p off), roughly every 7 minutes, around half an hour into the New Town.
It is Scotland's only airport rail connection and the fare survived the February 2026 fare rise — Edinburgh Trams explicitly froze Airport Zone tickets while city singles went up.
Tight budget? Airlink 100 from the door: £6.00 single / £8.50 open return, 24/7 — or £3.50 if you only ride between Maybury and the airport.
Doing more than one ride today? Tap On Tap Off caps at a £14.00 all-zone Network Day covering Airlink, city buses and the tram.

🚋 Every way out — real prices

Edinburgh Trams to the New Town BEST FOR MOST
£7.90
The tram stop is inside the terminal; Airport Zone singles (all zones, airport ↔ any city stop) are £7.90 from platform machines, £7.50 pre-purchased at edinburghticket.com, and Tap On/Tap Off with contactless works on trams too. Trams every 7 minutes at peak, journey to St Andrew Square around 30 minutes. Child Airport Single £4.00. Airport-zone fares were FROZEN in the 22 Feb 2026 rise.
Airlink 100 express bus
£6.00
Lothian Buses' 24/7 express runs airport ↔ city centre (St Andrew Square / Waverley) outside the terminal doors: adult single £6.00, open return £8.50 (valid any day), family return £22 for 2 adults + 3 kids, child £3.00. Journeys between the Maybury area and the airport/city are a shorter £3.50. Standard Lothian day tickets are NOT valid on Airlink.
Contactless TapTapCap day/week
£14.00 day cap
Tap your card on the reader on any Airlink bus or tram: daily/weekly caps calculate themselves, use the same card all day. Network tickets including the airport and all tram zones cap at £14.00 per adult per day (child £7), and the contactless week caps at £26.50. Worth it for the same day if you plan 2 airport rides plus city hops or a NightBus.
Black cab (Capital Cars rank)
≈£18–25 (metered)
The airport's official taxi company is Capital Cars; the rank sits in the East Terminus, a short walk across the plaza from arrivals. Fare rates to anywhere in the city are SET BY CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL and apply to every taxi at the rank — outside the council area you get a quoted fixed fare. The airport does not publish a flat airport-to-centre price, so treat the range as indicative; it's a ~20-minute drive.
Pre-booked private hire / Uber
app/quoted
Edinburgh Airport's official private-hire booking line is 0844 448 8576 and its rank is on the ground floor of the multi-storey car park; other operators (including app cars) pick up from the charged pickup zone in the same car park, not the kerb. Pre-booking with flight details is the late-night play — the rank can thin out after the last bank of flights lands.
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⚠️ The traps (walk past these)

No ticket before boarding = £10 on-board fare

Edinburgh Trams is a strict pre-purchase system: machines are on the platforms, app tickets must be activated BEFORE you board, and anyone caught on the tram without a validated ticket pays a £10 flat on-board fare to the Ticketing Services Assistant — versus £7.90 properly bought. The machine ticket is only valid to board within 30 minutes of purchase, so don't buy the moment you land with a 40-minute bag wait.

Do this: tap contactless on the platform validator or activate your app ticket immediately before stepping on — and re-time machine tickets to your boarding
The £2.40 city ticket does not go near the airport

On 22 February 2026 the City Zone adult single rose to £2.40 and day tickets to £6.00 — but the airport is a separate fare zone. City Zone DAY/LATE tickets and the city caps are explicitly not valid for airport tram journeys, and standard Lothian day products don't work on the Airlink either. Bloggers mixing 'Edinburgh tram £2.50' into airport guides are quoting the city-only fare.

Do this: buy an Airport Zone product (single £7.90, Network Day £14) — never a City Zone ticket for the airport leg
Old fares: the tram was cheaper when your guide was written

Edinburgh Airport tram singles sat at £6.00–£7.00 through the early 2020s and crept up again before the 2026 freeze at £7.90; the Airlink rose from £5.50 to £6.00 single and £8.00 to £8.50 open return on 27 July 2025. If your offline guide promises those old numbers, the machines will disagree at the platform.

Do this: price the trip at £7.90 tram / £6.00 Airlink and check edinburghtrams.com/tickets if it looks different on the day
Trams stop for the night — the bus doesn't

The first/last tram windows don't cover a red-eye landing; Airlink 100 advertises 24/7 from the door. If your flight comes in after the tram finishes, the £6 bus (or a £14 day-cap ride) is the only public route into town, not a cheaper taxi.

Do this: check the tram's last-departure time for your arrival night and keep Airlink as the 3am fallback

💡 Know before you walk

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