Stansted to Edinburgh flights: airlines, times and fares

Two airlines fly Stansted to Edinburgh direct: Ryanair and easyJet. Both are short-haul, hand-luggage-first carriers, and between them they cover the route through most of the day. Ryanair is Stansted's largest airline and tends to set the cheapest fare; easyJet bases aircraft here too and often runs the more convenient daytime slots. There is no full-service carrier on this route from Stansted, so do not expect a free hold bag or an allocated seat in the headline price.

If you want the broad London-to-Edinburgh choice, British Airways flies the route from Heathrow and Gatwick rather than Stansted, and several carriers fly it from Luton and City. From Stansted specifically, Ryanair and easyJet are the two to compare, and the difference is usually price, bag rules and departure time rather than the flight itself. The airlines at Stansted page sets out what each carrier includes.

Edinburgh is a high-frequency route by Stansted standards. Route databases put it at roughly 40 to 50 flights a week between the two airlines, an average of about six to seven departures a day, with the first leaving around 07:40 and the last in the evening near 22:35. That gives you real flexibility to pick a time, and a missed flight is rarely a long wait for the next one.

Frequency is not fixed. The leisure-heavy schedule thins in winter and thickens in summer, and the split between Ryanair and easyJet shifts season to season, so the count above is a guide rather than a timetable. To see what is actually flying on your date, check the live departures board or the airline directly, and confirm the exact departure times when you book.

The flight takes about 1 hour 20 minutes on the published schedule, gate to gate. The airport's own Edinburgh page quotes a flight time of 1 hour 10 minutes, which is nearer the time actually in the air; the booked block usually allows a little more for taxiing, departure queues and holding. The straight-line distance is around 316 miles.

That short flight is only part of the day. Against it you have the trip out to Stansted, the airport's recommended two-hour security buffer, and about half an hour from Edinburgh Airport into the city at the other end. The time in the air is the smallest part of the door-to-door total, which is the heart of the fly-or-train question below.

One-way fares start at roughly £15 to £20 when you book well ahead, with Ryanair usually the cheapest and easyJet close behind. On quiet midweek dates a return can come in under £40. These are lead-in fares and they move constantly: prices climb as the flight fills, spike around the August festival season when the whole city is busy, and are lowest on off-peak weekdays booked months out.

Because both carriers are low-cost, the fare on the screen is rarely the price you pay. A cabin bag larger than the free personal item, a checked bag and a chosen seat are each extra, and they can double a cheap fare. Compare the all-in cost between Ryanair and easyJet rather than the headline number, and book directly with the airline. The fares quoted here are indicative, so check the live price on the airline's own site before you commit.

For Scotland, the flight is not the automatic winner it looks. The LNER train from London King's Cross reaches Edinburgh Waverley in about 4 hours 20 minutes at its fastest, runs roughly every half hour, and drops you in the city centre with no security queue and a generous bag allowance. The flight is far quicker in the air, but the door-to-door comparison is closer than the 1 hour 20 minutes suggests.

Add up the real flight day: the journey to Stansted, the two-hour buffer before departure, the flight, then about 30 minutes from Edinburgh Airport into town. For someone starting in central London, the train can match or beat that, and it avoids the early start that the cheapest Stansted fares often demand. Fly if you live near Stansted, if the fare is very low, or if you are connecting onward; take the train if you start central, are travelling with luggage, or simply value the simpler trip. If Stansted is your starting point, the wider route map shows where else the airport flies.

Edinburgh is a domestic UK flight, so there is no passport control in either direction, but you still need valid photo identification to board, and Ryanair and easyJet each set their own accepted documents. Be at security at least two hours before departure, the airport's own recommendation, and more in the early-morning rush. Your gate and satellite are shown on the departures board and vary by flight: most gates are reached by the airside transit, while Satellite 3 is a walk of around 15 minutes, so check the board and leave time.

At the Edinburgh end, the tram and the Airlink 100 bus both run into the city centre in about 30 minutes, the tram to St Andrew Square and the bus to Waverley Bridge by the railway station. For the trip to Stansted itself, the flight information hub links the live boards, check-in and the pre-flight detail, and the airport's getting-here pages cover the train, coach and parking options.