Cheapest Places to Fly From Scotland: Edinburgh vs Glasgow Deals

• £36

  Cheapest Edinburgh deal in the feed on 17 Oct 2026 (Porto)

• £38

  Cheapest Glasgow deal in the feed on 17 Oct 2026 (Alicante)

• 1,006

  EDI and GLA deals logged, 19 Sep to 17 Oct 2026

• 16.97m

  Edinburgh terminal passengers in 2025 (CAA)

If you live in Scotland, “cheapest places to fly” really means two questions: where the cheap fares go, and which of the two big airports sells them. Edinburgh handled 16.97 million terminal passengers in 2025 and Glasgow 8.21 million, according to the Civil Aviation Authority’s 2025 annual airport data. They serve neighbouring cities, yet in our data they rarely had the same cheapest trips.

This guide puts the two side by side using Blame the Fare’s deal data: what was in the feed on 17 October 2026, and every deal the scanner logged from each airport between 19 September and 17 October 2026. All fares are one adult, economy, return, in pounds, as found at the time. They are snapshots of discounted fares, not prices you can still book, and they are not a complete history of every fare on a route.

The cheapest deals from Scotland on 17 October

On 17 October 2026 the public feed held 18 deals from Edinburgh and 18 from Glasgow. The cheapest Edinburgh deal was Porto at £36 on Ryanair; the cheapest from Glasgow was Alicante at £38 on easyJet. The median deal was £72 from Edinburgh and £61 from Glasgow, and seven Edinburgh deals and nine Glasgow deals were £60 or under.

Two details worth knowing. Paris Beauvais is a long way from central Paris, so add the transfer before comparing it with a flight to Charles de Gaulle. And these fares are base prices for the cheapest ticket type; on low-cost airlines a cabin bag or hold bag can cost more than the flight. Our checked bag fees guide covers what to add.

You can see the latest fares on the Edinburgh departures page and the Glasgow departures page. Both update as the scanner runs, so they will not match this table for long.

Same destination, two airports: Edinburgh vs Glasgow

The more useful view is the four weeks of history. Between 19 September and 17 October 2026 the scanner logged 502 deals from Edinburgh across 50 destinations and 504 from Glasgow across 42. Where both airports had deals to the same place, the difference was often bigger than the bus fare between them.

Read the counts before the prices. Nine deals to Tenerife from Edinburgh is a small sample, and some destinations had only a handful of logged deals from one side. Departure dates and airlines also differ: Glasgow’s Paphos deals were on Jet2 and Edinburgh’s on easyJet, for dates between late September 2026 and March 2027. So treat the table as a hint about which airport to check first, not proof that one is always cheaper.

Where Edinburgh tends to be cheaper

Edinburgh’s logged deals leaned heavily on Ryanair, which appeared on 23 of the 50 Edinburgh routes in the data, against 13 for easyJet. That shows in where Edinburgh came out ahead: Portugal, the Canaries, Ibiza and a long list of city breaks Glasgow did not match in the data.

Some of the lowest fares from anywhere in Scotland were Edinburgh flights to Ireland. Cork had 10 logged deals from £26 (median £29), Shannon 6 from £28 and Knock 5 at £30. Other Edinburgh-only destinations with low fares included Gothenburg (22 deals, from £34), Paris Beauvais (18, from £35), Las Palmas (15, from £32), Milan Bergamo (5, from £38), Tirana (21, from £42), Sofia (17, from £56) and Bordeaux (25, from £59).

Edinburgh also had the winter oddities. Tromsø had 24 deals from £77, for departures between late December 2026 and early March 2027, and Rovaniemi had 3 from £143. If you want snow and northern lights rather than sun, that is where Edinburgh earns its place.

Where Glasgow tends to be cheaper

Glasgow’s logged deals were dominated by easyJet (on 23 of 42 routes) and Jet2 (13), with Ryanair on only 6. That gives it a different shape from Edinburgh, with more Spanish mainland, Poland and package-holiday style routes to Turkey and Greece.

Glasgow had the only Spanish mainland deals from Scotland in the data: Alicante (19 deals, from £32, median £48), Málaga (18, from £38, median £41) and Barcelona (24, from £44, median £52). Poland was Glasgow-only too, with Kraków (18, from £40) and Wrocław (23, from £40). Malta had 26 deals from £52, Rome 17 from £58, and Jersey 28 from £41, well below Edinburgh’s Jersey median of £75.

The Jet2 routes are the ones to read carefully. Glasgow deals to Izmir, Bodrum and Burgas were logged at £231 to £504 return, often only days before departure. Late seats can be flagged as discounted while still costing more than a planned trip elsewhere. A big percentage off does not make a fare cheap.

Getting to Edinburgh and Glasgow airports

For most people in the Central Belt, the trip to either airport is cheap enough that it should not decide the booking. For people coming from further away, it can.

In Edinburgh, Lothian’s Airlink 100 is the cheaper of the two city-centre options and runs all night, which matters for 6am departures. The tram costs a little more and suits you if you are staying near a tram stop. The airport is its own tram fare zone, so a city-zone tram ticket will not cover it.

In Glasgow, First’s Airport Express 500 listed a £2 single when checked on 17 October 2026 and runs 24 hours from Buchanan Bus Station. At that price, a Glaswegian heading to Edinburgh for, say, a £20 cheaper fare has to add the intercity journey and the Airlink, and a very early flight may not be reachable by public transport at all. Do the sum for your own postcode.

Aberdeen and Prestwick: worth a separate search

Blame the Fare does not scan Aberdeen or Glasgow Prestwick, so nothing in our data covers them. They are still worth a separate search if you live nearby.

Aberdeen handled 2.30 million terminal passengers in 2025 and Prestwick 620,699, per the CAA, so both offer far fewer routes than Edinburgh or Glasgow. Prestwick has a direct rail link: its own station is joined to the terminal by a covered walkway, with two trains an hour to Glasgow Central taking about 40 minutes, according to the airport. Tickets cannot be bought at the station, so buy online or on the train. Use Google Flights or Skyscanner to compare these airports with Edinburgh and Glasgow on your dates.

Long-haul from Scotland or position to London?

Scotland now has more direct long-haul flying than it used to. Edinburgh Airport says its 2025 additions included Air Canada to Montréal, JetBlue to Boston in summer, American Airlines to Philadelphia in summer and Hainan Airlines to Beijing. But most of the long-haul deals the scanner logged from Scotland were one-stop fares, and London often had a lower headline price.

Now add the trip south. The feed on 17 October 2026 had a London City to Glasgow return on British Airways at £146 and a London City to Edinburgh return at £150. Either one wipes out the £90 Toronto saving before you count transfers across London. For Los Angeles the £12 gap is not worth a single train ticket. Reykjavík from Luton is the one case where the gap looks big enough, and only if you already have a cheap way to London.

Manchester sits closer for people in the south of Scotland, but the same arithmetic applies. If you do go via London or Manchester, you are buying a positioning flight or train on a separate ticket. If it runs late, the long-haul airline does not have to rebook you. Our guide to separate tickets explains the risk and how much buffer to leave. See the Heathrow and Manchester pages for what they are showing now, and use our Manchester route guide to judge whether the extra trip south is likely to widen your options.

How far ahead the Scottish deals appeared

The history also records how far ahead each deal was spotted: the gap between the day the scanner logged it and the departure date. Winter-sun deals for November and December from both airports had median lead times of about 53 to 75 days. Edinburgh to Faro was 53 days, Glasgow to Lanzarote 68 and Edinburgh to Fuerteventura 72. Glasgow’s Hurghada deals, mostly for January 2027, sat at a median of 102 days.

At the other end, late-season deals turned up close to departure. Edinburgh to Madeira had a median lead of 4 days and Edinburgh to Biarritz 9. Those suit people who can go at a week’s notice.

Be careful with what this proves. The data only contains fares already below a typical price, so it shows when good deals appeared, not that two months out is the cheapest time to book. For that question, read when to book flights.

How to find the cheapest trip from Scotland

Here is the routine that works from Scotland, whichever airport is nearer:

1. Search Edinburgh and Glasgow together. Add both as origins in Google Flights or Skyscanner. On some routes the median gap was over £40 return in the data.
2. Start with the destination types Scotland does well. Portugal, the Canaries, Spain, Morocco, Poland and Ireland were where most of the sub-£50 returns turned up in the data.
3. Price the bags and the airport run. For example, a £36 fare with a £40 bag is a £76 trip. Add the Airlink, the 500 or your parking.
4. For long-haul, price Scotland first. Then compare a London or Manchester departure with the train or flight south, a possible hotel and the risk of a separate ticket.
5. Track the route you want. Google’s price tracking can email you about a route on any dates. A Blame the Fare Watch covers an exact trip.
6. Set a price and book when it is met. Deal fares like the ones above can disappear quickly, and waiting is not guaranteed to pay.

Our guides to finding the cheapest flights from your airport and choosing a second airport to compare go into these steps in more detail. If you have a budget rather than a destination, searching by budget works well from Scotland.

Keep an eye on one Scottish route

The public deal feed shows a preview of current UK deals, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, without an account. The full feed and Watches are for members of The Departures Club. A Watch saves one origin, destination, pair of dates and the most you will pay, then checks it hourly and emails you when a fare matches. It does not sell tickets: you book with the airline or agent. You can compare plans on the membership page.

Whatever tool you use, check the final price at checkout, including bags and seats, before you pay.