Transport in Scotland - Air Transport

Air Transport

Scotland has four international airports with scheduled services, operating to Europe, North America and Asia, as well as England and Wales.

• Edinburgh Airport, which became Scotland's busiest airport in July 2007, serves many European business destinations including Paris, Frankfurt, Zürich, Milan, Brussels, Istanbul and Copenhagen. However its long haul network is starting to grow with the addition of a daily flight service to Newark (for New York City; twice daily in summer)
• Glasgow International Airport operates a large number of European charter flights and a handful of long haul international routes to United States, Canada and Dubai. Loganair has its hub here, with services to the Highland and Islands, and Northern Ireland.
• Aberdeen Airport operates many domestic and international flights for the people in the north of Scotland, including most UK airports, along with international scheduled destinations such as Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Oslo, Dublin, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Cyprus, Majorca and Málaga. Many chartered services are also offered.
• Glasgow Prestwick International Airport is Glasgow's s second airport, located 29 miles from the city centre in Ayrshire. It serves as the Scottish hub of low cost airline, Ryanair with services to the Republic of Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and Latvia. Wizz Air provides services to Poland.

These four airports now serve 107 international destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited operate ten small airports across the Highlands, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, which are primarily used for short distance, public service operations, although Inverness Airport has a number of scheduled flights to destinations across the UK, as well as chartered flights to Europe.

Scotland technically has no national airline, the former British Caledonian which was based in Scotland was taken over by British Airways in the 1980s. Some Scottish-based airlines operating include:

• BMI Regional- a subsidiary of BMI which is based at Aberdeen Airport;
• Eastern Airways- based at Aberdeen Airport;
• Loganair- a Flybe franchise (previously operated as a British Airways franchise ) operating between Glasgow International, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness to the Scottish Islands and Northern Ireland.
• Scot Airways- based at Dundee Airport and Edinburgh.

British Airways, Flybe, Jet2, Ryanair and EasyJet all operate flights between Scotland and other major UK and European airports.