On this page (5 sections)
The route in one look
Gatwick North Terminal to Edinburgh, with one airport at each end.
The route runs from Gatwick (LGW) to Edinburgh (EDI), and serves both directions: Edinburgh to Gatwick is the same flight with the same facts. Edinburgh has a single airport, so there is nothing to disambiguate at the Scottish end, and Gatwick's own complication is the terminal rather than the destination.
Edinburgh Airport gives the flight time as 1h 30m, across a straight-line distance of about 356 miles, or 574 km. That makes it the longest of the London to Edinburgh hops, a few minutes more than Heathrow, because Gatwick sits further south.
Departures use the North Terminal, which is where easyJet operates at Gatwick. Worth flagging now: the Glasgow route from Gatwick does not work this way, because it has two airlines split across both terminals. Do not carry an assumption from one Scottish route to the other.
Who flies it
easyJet alone, and British Airways deliberately absent.
easyJet is the only airline flying Gatwick to Edinburgh non-stop, from the North Terminal. That is a more pointed fact than it looks. British Airways still flies domestic routes from Gatwick, but only to Glasgow and Manchester; Edinburgh is not among them. So on this route there is no fare competition and no fallback carrier at this airport if a flight is cancelled.
Edinburgh is well served from London as a whole, and easyJet itself flies it from Luton and other London airports. The competition on this city pair is spread across London's airports rather than concentrated at any one of them, which is the practical context for the next section. Our airline line-up at Gatwick and every direct route from Gatwick both place the service in the wider network.
Schedules shift by season, so book against easyJet's own timetable and use the live departures board for the day you fly.
Gatwick or another London airport
The real decision on this route, answered honestly.
Gatwick's domestic case to Scotland is the weakest of the London airports, and the reason is geography rather than the flight. Gatwick is 30 miles south of central London. If you are starting north of the river, getting to Gatwick can take as long as the flight does, and by the time you are airside you could have been an hour into a train from King's Cross.
That train is the comparison worth making. LNER runs direct services from King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley in about 4h 08m, city centre to city centre. There is no direct rail link from Gatwick to Scotland at all, so the airport does not compete with that train on its own terms: it competes only for people for whom Gatwick is already the convenient airport.
For those travellers the route is genuinely good. If you live in Sussex, Surrey, Croydon or along the Brighton line, Gatwick is your local airport, the Gatwick Express and the Thameslink and Southern services put you at the terminal quickly, and flying to Edinburgh from here beats any rail option that starts with a trip into London. The honest test is simple: if reaching Gatwick is easier than reaching King's Cross, fly. If it is not, take the train.
At the North Terminal
One terminal to find, and a domestic departure with no border.
easyJet flies from Gatwick's North Terminal, so that is where every Edinburgh departure begins. Gatwick's two terminals are separate buildings connected by a shuttle, so arriving at the wrong one costs real time; our terminal finder settles it if you are unsure, and the North Terminal guide covers check-in, security and the layout once you are inside.
This is a domestic flight, so there is no immigration control in either direction and no passport requirement, though you do need photo identification that easyJet accepts. Standard liquid rules apply at security as on any other departure.
If you are flying early, the North Terminal lounges can be booked on the day as well as accessed with an eligible card. Edinburgh Airport has a single terminal, so the arrival needs no planning beyond onward transport into the city, which is about eight miles east by tram or bus.
Who it suits
A strong local route, and the wrong choice for most of London.
If Gatwick is your natural airport, this is a good flight. An hour and a half to Edinburgh, a single terminal at both ends, no border formalities and no long onward transfer at the far end. For anyone in Sussex, Surrey or south London, it is comfortably the fastest way to central Scotland, and a same-day return is realistic.
If Gatwick is not your natural airport, think twice. Crossing London to reach an airport 30 miles south, to fly north over the city you just left, is a poor shape of trip when a direct train from King's Cross takes just over four hours and leaves from the middle of town. That is the situation where the answer is not to fly this route, and saying so is more useful than pretending otherwise.
One more consideration: easyJet is the only operator here, so there is no second airline to rebook onto at Gatwick if your flight is cancelled. That is worth a little extra slack on a date you cannot move. Gatwick's other Scottish route, Gatwick to Glasgow, is the exception on both counts, with two airlines flying it.