New express bus service from Edinburgh Airport to city centre is 'fastest and cheapest'

The new Bright Bus service started on 1 January.

A new bus service between the airport and the city centre has been launched promising the ‘fastest and cheapest’ airport link in Edinburgh.

McGills Group, which operates tour buses in the Capital, has started the Airport Express bus service competing with well-established Lothian Airlink buses, in the first competition on the route for around 25 years. The service runs every ten minutes during early morning peak times and bosses say it offers the quickest journey times of any public transport option between the city and the airport.

The new Bright Bus offers an adult single at £4 and a return at £6.50, compared with Lothian’s £5.50 and £8 for those journeys on its Airlink 100 service.

Bright Bus Airport Express

It also connects with Bright Bus hop-on hop-off tours around the city centre at an interchange on Waterloo Place and to and from the Royal Yacht Britannia. Customers can get

a range of combo tickets including City and Britannia tours, as well as a weekly ‘holiday package’ Experience Edinburgh option.

Stops will also be located outside Waverley and Haymarket Station, Princes Street and Shandwick Place with two calling points at Murrayfield and Edinburgh Zoo.

Staff will be decked out in their ‘cant miss it’ orange uniform and name badges as the firm says they aim to deliver the friendliest bus service in Edinburgh.

After four years of developing a tours across the Capital company chiefs said an airport service is the ‘next natural step’ to serve the thousands of tourists who use their hop on and hop off buses each year.

Alex Hornby, group managing director said: “Bright Bus has been a great success for us, and we are keen to spread the magic of this start-up, friendly brand across the city so that incoming visitors and locals alike can reap the benefits of cheaper, faster, brighter and more sustainable travel options to and from Edinburgh Airport. The whole team is thrilled to be launching Bright Bus Airport Express and growing public transport usage across the city.”

A timetable shows that service starts at 0330 seven days per week, with a 15-minute frequency during daytime hours. The competing Lothian Airlink 100 operates 24/7, with a broadly 10-minute daytime frequency.