Edinburgh Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Great first impression of Scotland. Being held on the runway for a space, then walking through the dirtiest, ramshackle corridor to a warehouse, passing as passport control. Never seen an option to pay to jump the immigration queue. Only 2 desks open, so I guess they were surprised at our arrival. Almost an hour to be processed by the rudest, loudest staff and still a further wait for baggage - Schiphol is much more efficient. Then customs, with 5 people laughing and joking with each other and ignoring passengers. Arrivals looks like a homeless shelter that's been bombed. How are disabled people meant to be picked up if they can't pay the extortionate charge? There's no provision to take you to the free drop-off area. Taxi fares are a rip off. Hire cars are miles away and difficult to get to ... who takes a local bus with luggage?

Not Verified | What a primitive backward airport. The security staff are rude and don't seem to know what they are doing and lack customer service. They all need retraining. Seriously I've been flying for 16 years and this airport where "Scotland meets the world"! Don't know which idiot came up with that slogan?

Not Verified | I have never encountered such disgusting rudeness and disrespect as I have from the wretched "security" staff at this airport. It started when the gentleman in front of us at the Fast Track tried to go to a vacant security station, the security guy there said he should go to 1 and we should go to 3, but 3 was still occupied. But the security guy had either ideas and shouted to the man that he had to go to 1. When he pointed out, very mildly, it was still occupied the semi-hysterical employee screamed "You go there because I tell you!" Following this the stream of was going too slowly because of the staff's inefficiency. Trying to find a space in which to put my tray a staff pointed at me and said "Don't you put it on top of another one!" I had no intention of doing so, merely looking for a gap, but she insisted in eyeballing me and repeating "Do you understand?" I replied "If you say so" but I had the distinct feeling the woman was seeking to create a confrontation. Finally my wife's medication were held up, and I think they seriously contemplated confiscating them, because they claimed (falsely) that the name of the prescription wasn't clear. I got the distinct impression that the entire shift were out to create problems and confrontations with the passengers, perhaps to embarrass their employers or perhaps because they were so full themselves and their self-importance, strutting about cockily in their little uniforms in their fiefdom. Whichever it was I strongly believe that these people are not fit to be in charge of security at an airport.

Not Verified | Very poor information regarding the huge queue to even enter the airport. Arrival past rubbish bins and with lots of stairs gives a very poor impression of where “Scotland meets the World”. Air gates need to be used far more often. Clearly, there is an issue with that. The UK Border point is also very poor, like a warehouse shed more akin to storage than a welcoming border. A number of the electronic gates continually rejected passports. Overall, an airport that was sadly much better 25 years ago. The owners need to step up!

Not Verified | Arrived into Edinburgh Airport twice during our 2.5 week stay in June/July 2023 on both an international and then domestic flight. International arrival from the US was delayed by an hour. When we arrived around midday it was like our flight was a surprise to the Airport staff. It took an hour to get from the plane to the immigration staff member. We walked from the plane (approximately 200 people on board) and entered a hot, unventilated hall and participated in the British national sport of queuing, for close to 45 minutes during which time the staff member tried to encourage people to take the 'Express path' quickly followed by 'oh it's £7 per person. Seriously who would charge a fee to get to immigration and also it's a captive market. When we finally made it to the front of the queue, hot and tired from our overnight flight, three of the five Smart Gates were out of order and we were redirected to the human immigration officers. Staff were lovely and we headed to the baggage carousel. We had already been off the plane for an hour yet we then waited another 25mins for our bags to come out for collection. Thankfully we received our luggage. We proceeded to the rental car 'centre' which is located as far away from the airport that you could design. Past the myriad of bus stops (btw who gets off an international flight as a tourist as says, yes I want to catch a local bus?). The footpath to the rental car centre is nice and cracked so rolling your suitcase is especially fun to get to your car. We arrived at the rental centre to find 17 people in the Hertz queue ahead of us. We waited 1.5 hrs to be allocated our car. On departure for both our domestic and then international flight the only positive was the BA lounge. The Edinburgh Airport check in hall looks like it is a temporary location designed for mass refugee processing. The staff were lovely but once you've gone through the bare bones check in lady behind a crappy kiosk you then lug your bag to the carousel where a staff member sits and watches you do it. I had so long waiting in queues at Edinburgh Airport I was able to google search reviews on the Airport to which I found out experience was not out of the ordinary. We will never fly into Edinburgh Airport again and I am horrified that this is presumably the gateway to get to all Scottish tourism sites but even more so the high paying golfers coming to go to St Andrews. The Airport apparent upgrades - what upgrades? Why should anyone pay to drop off a friend, relative or taxi customer (revenue generation)? Why aren't the rental car desks located directly outside the terminal in the whopping car park? Why are you punishing flyers by directing them towards Scottish buses, then trams and only then with the assistance of appalling footpaths car rental?? The blatant attempts to direct people away from cars in a country with a train service is ridiculous. On talking with out hotel shuttle driver following our domestic return via Edinburgh Airport he told us they've been complete rubbish since they reopened after COVID with no improvement. Other than the Airport and Hertz being utterly useless we had a great trip.

Not Verified | Generally comfortable airport let down by primitive security systems. At least half the bags were diverted for manual checks, mostly for silly reasons (eg items placed in the wrong position on the tray) Huge delays as a result. And the wifi didn't seem to work.

Not Verified | We arrived at the airport about lunch time. There were no trolleys in the luggage area. Later I saw loads in the parking and pickup and drop-off areas. There were very few border police to check passports and there was a long line of people waiting over half an hour to pass through border. Some machines were out of order. There was a long wait over 45 minutes to get our luggage and two other flights' luggage rolled out on the same belt. I am sure we could do much better to act as a gateway of Scotland to the world.

✅ Trip Verified | BA Flight was delayed 1 hour. It was chaos at the departure entrance. With hundreds of passengers piled up together just to get to the ticket scanner. Queued 30 mins to get to the scanner and another 20mins to get to the security check. Then at security check, while reassuring, required all IT devices to be exposed, out of the bags and individually laid out. Mine had a mobile phone sitting on top of my iPad. This resulted in my iPad having to be re-scanned, re-queued. Altogether from entry to departure lounge to departure gate took 1.5hours. I was on a DOMESTIC from to London. Can’t imagine what international passengers endured. Anyone departing for a domestic flight from Edinburgh should give at least 3-4 hrs before departure time. The airport cannot cope with the passenger volume.

Not Verified | I arrived in Edinburgh Airport on Sunday the 18 th of June. My flight was from Prague and I was accompanied by my two sisters, one of whom is recovering from cancer treatment. On arrival there was a huge queue to get through arrivals and I remarked to a very stressed looking airport worker that there must have been 2 flights landing very near in time to one another. She looked very flushed and tired and said there were in fact 7 flights being processed together. Customs controls were not fully manned and we were in the queue about an hour while more and more people built up behind us. We had no hold luggage but we saw an enormous pile of luggage lying in a heap beside the conveyor belt with almost no luggage at all circling on it. The airport in arrivals is very dirty and unfinished ceilings add to the unprofessional appearance of the airport. Now home, I’m reflecting on the safety angle of these 7 flights landing so near to one another and would like to hear from anyone who could enlighten me on this. I will attempt to contact the airport to have their position on this made clear.

Not Verified | Arrived at Edinburgh from Malaga yesterday. On arrival at the baggage collection we had to wait over an hour for our baggage. Apparently there was an issue that they were unable to get our luggage off the plane. The carrier made an announcement that we could delay collecting our luggage either to collect it at a later date or have it delivered. Utter shambles. We decided to wait and 30 minutes later an announcement was made that our luggage was off the plane and on its way. Unfortunately more than 50% of passengers had elected to collect their baggage at a later date. It has happened before at Edinburgh and the last time we had to wait on the plane for an hour because no staff were available to put the ladders up against the plane? Scotland's pride? Bloody disgrace.