Scotland’s busiest airport, one terminal, and a tram stop at the door. Edinburgh is easy to arrive at and briefly impossible during three weeks in August.
First Class Chauffeurs provides chauffeur transfers at Edinburgh Airport at Ingliston, roughly eight miles west of Edinburgh city centre. The airport operates from a single passenger terminal, so all arriving passengers use one exit and the chauffeur meets them there with a name board. Edinburgh Trams run from a stop immediately outside the terminal into the city, which is useful context rather than part of a chauffeured collection. The airport is reached from the A8 and junction 2 of the M8, and the drive into the city centre indicatively takes twenty-five to forty-five minutes, longer during the August festival weeks when traffic across the city changes considerably. The Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston sits beside the airport and affects local roads during its events. The inbound flight is tracked so a delay moves the collection rather than losing it, and waiting time is included in the quoted arrivals fare. Fife, Stirling, Perth, St Andrews and Glasgow are all within a comfortable run. Fixed fares are published on your quotation and the written quotation confirms the final price, what it includes and any applicable tax.
Indicative drive
25 to 45 min, city centre
Distance
About 8 miles west
Terminals
One
Main roads
A8 and M8 junction 2
01/Overview
Arriving at Edinburgh
Edinburgh Airport sits at Ingliston, about eight miles west of the city, with a single terminal and a road approach off the A8 and the M8. Arrivals come out at one point, which makes the meet as simple as any airport in Britain, and the car parks sit close enough that the walk out with luggage is a short one.
The complication here is not the building but the calendar. During the festival weeks in August the city absorbs an extraordinary number of people, the roads in change character entirely, and a journey that takes twenty-five minutes in March takes an hour. We quote against the week you are travelling rather than an annual average.
02/At a glance
Edinburgh in four figures
Drive times are indicative ranges rather than promises. The same run behaves differently at seven in the morning and seven in the evening.
Indicative drive
25 to 45 min, city centre
Distance
About 8 miles west
Terminals
One
Main roads
A8 and M8 junction 2
03/Terminals
The terminals, and where we stand in each
Knowing the building is most of the job. Each of these has its own approach, its own car park and its own place to stand.
01
The single terminal
One building for everything. Arrivals come through into the hall on the ground floor, where your chauffeur waits with a name board and takes the trolley before the walk to the car park.
02
The short stay car park
Parking sits a short level walk from the arrivals doors. The car is in it before you land, which is the only arrangement that works at an airport where passengers clear quickly.
03
The tram stop and the forecourt
The tram stop is immediately outside the terminal and the set-down area beside it is busy and closely managed. We use it for departures and meet inside on arrivals.
04/The meet
How a Edinburgh collection runs
Four steps, in the order they happen. Most of them are finished before you are on the ground.
Step 01
Flight tracked, car parked early
The chauffeur watches the inbound and is in the short stay before the aircraft lands. Edinburgh clears passengers briskly, so arriving as the wheels touch is arriving late.
Step 02
Met inside the arrivals hall
One terminal, one exit, one name board. The chauffeur is standing in front of the doors from reclaim, and you had their name and number the day before.
Step 03
Bags taken at the doors
The trolley is handed over inside rather than at the kerb. It is a short, level walk to the car park from there and nothing to negotiate on the way.
Step 04
Out by the A8, or round on the bypass
Into the city it is the A8; for Fife, Stirling or the north it is the bypass and the bridges. The route is chosen before you land, not at the airport exit.
LF-01/August, and what the festival does to eight miles
August, and what the festival does to eight miles
For most of the year the run from Ingliston into the New Town is twenty-five to thirty minutes and entirely predictable. For three weeks in August it is not. The festival brings a volume of visitors the road network was never built for, and the last two miles into the centre are where it shows.
We do two things about it. Pick-up times for August departures are set considerably earlier than the rest of the year, and arrivals are quoted with the honest range rather than the March one. Nobody enjoys being told a journey will take an hour, and they enjoy it less at the far end.
LF-02/The Royal Highland Showground next door
The Royal Highland Showground next door
The showground at Ingliston sits immediately beside the airport, and when there is a major event on it the local roads carry a great deal more traffic than usual. The Royal Highland Show in June is the obvious one.
It is the sort of thing a chauffeur who works the airport weekly knows and a visiting driver does not. On show days we approach from a different direction and allow more time, and we say so in the confirmation.
LF-03/Into the New Town, and out to the Old
Into the New Town, and out to the Old
Edinburgh is a difficult city to drive in and a very good one to be driven in. The New Town grid is elegant and full of restrictions; the Old Town is medieval and full of buses. Hotel entrances are frequently not on the street the hotel is named after.
So we take the door rather than the postcode. A George Street address that actually loads from a side street is worth knowing before you arrive with three cases at half past ten at night.
05/The cars
What we send to Edinburgh
Cases decide this more often than passengers do. Four adults fit in a saloon; four adults with four large cases do not.
No standing price list. Send the journey on WhatsApp and the written quotation confirms the price, what it includes and any applicable tax.
LF-04/The Forth crossings and the run into Fife
The Forth crossings and the run into Fife
North of the airport the bypass leads to the Queensferry Crossing and everything beyond it: Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, St Andrews, Perth and Dundee. It is a fast road and a genuinely beautiful one on a clear day.
St Andrews is about an hour and a half from the terminal, which makes Edinburgh the practical airport for golf traffic to the east coast. Those runs are quoted as fixed long-distance journeys with one chauffeur throughout.
LF-05/Golf, whisky and the touring week
Golf, whisky and the touring week
A large share of our Scottish work is not a transfer at all but a week: arrive at Edinburgh, play a course a day, move between hotels, finish at Glasgow or back where you started. The car and the chauffeur stay with the party throughout.
Those weeks are priced as as-directed hire by the day rather than as a series of transfers. Clubs live in the boot, the chauffeur knows which club has which starting time, and nobody negotiates a taxi at seven in the morning in Fife.
06/What it costs
How a transfer fare is put together
A transfer is quoted as one fixed fare for the run rather than by the hour, and the quotation names everything that fare covers before you accept it.
01
The run itself
Both ends of the journey and the route as we intend to drive it, quoted as a single movement.
02
The cabin you choose
Seats and cases decide the car, and the car is the largest single lever on the figure.
03
The waiting allowance
Stated on the quotation, and larger on an arrival than on a hotel collection because a landing time moves.
04
Where the car starts
A car positioned for a dawn collection carries mileage nobody is sitting in, and the quotation says so.
No standing price list. Send the journey on WhatsApp and the written quotation confirms the price, what it includes and any applicable tax. The pricing page sets out what moves a quotation, and one message on WhatsApp fixes the figure for your exact journey.
LF-06/Edinburgh and Glasgow, forty-five miles apart
Edinburgh and Glasgow, forty-five miles apart
The two cities are close enough that a business day frequently covers both, and the M8 between them is straightforward outside the peaks and tedious inside them. An arrival at Edinburgh with a meeting in Glasgow is an ordinary booking for us.
For a day of that shape an as-directed car generally beats two transfers. The bags stay in the boot, the chauffeur waits between appointments, and you are not rebooking anything from a pavement.
LF-07/Highland journeys that start at the terminal
Highland journeys that start at the terminal
Inverness, Aviemore, Fort William and the west are all long drives from Edinburgh and all considerably more pleasant by car than by any alternative. Three to four hours to a lodge, with the scenery doing most of the work.
We quote them as single fixed journeys, plan a stop or two into the run, and put a chauffeur on it who has driven the A9 in winter. That last point matters more than it sounds in January.
07/Coverage
Where we drive to and from Edinburgh
The places this airport serves most often. Every one of them has a page of its own with local detail on it.
Not on the list? We drive the whole of the United Kingdom. The full coverage index runs from central London out to the Highlands.
08/Other terminals
Airports near this one
Connections between these are ordinary bookings for us, quoted against the real gap between two flights rather than the one a booking engine considers legal.
Edinburgh’s late arrivals land into a terminal that empties quickly, and the road into the city at that hour is clear all the way. It is a short, quiet drive at the end of a long day, which is exactly when a booked car earns its money.
Reservations are answered around the clock, so a midnight landing is arranged the same way as a midday one. The chauffeur is inside the hall regardless of the hour.
09/Related work
The services this sits inside
An airport transfer is rarely the whole booking. These are the pages that cover what usually surrounds it.
Six things people ask before booking a car to this airport, answered plainly.
How many terminals does Edinburgh Airport have?
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One. Every arriving passenger comes out through the same doors, which makes the meet straightforward: the chauffeur stands in the arrivals hall with a name board and the car is already in the short stay a short walk away.
How long is the drive from Edinburgh Airport into the city centre?
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Indicatively twenty-five to forty-five minutes for about eight miles via the A8. During the August festival weeks it takes considerably longer, and we set both pick-up times and quotations against the week you are actually travelling.
Can you take us from Edinburgh Airport to St Andrews?
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Yes, and it is a common run. It is around an hour and a half over the Queensferry Crossing and up through Fife, quoted as a fixed long-distance journey with a single chauffeur for the whole trip.
Do you cover a full golf week in Scotland?
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We do, usually as as-directed hire by the day rather than a string of separate transfers. The same car and chauffeur stay with the party, clubs live in the boot, and the day is built around tee times rather than around bookings.
Is the airport affected by events at the Royal Highland Showground?
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Yes, because the showground sits immediately beside the airport. On major event days the local roads carry much more traffic, so we approach from a different direction and allow extra time, which is noted in the confirmation.
Can you drive between Edinburgh and Glasgow in a day?
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Easily. The cities are around forty-five miles apart on the M8 and a business day covering both is an ordinary booking. An as-directed car usually works better than two transfers, since the luggage and the chauffeur stay with you throughout.
Send us the flight number. We will send the Edinburgh fare in writing.
Message us the date, the pick-up and where you are going. You will get a fixed written quotation with the vehicle, the chauffeur’s arrival time and what the figure includes — no form to fill in, and no estimate that moves later.
