Fare hike for critical Edinburgh bus service that dodged price increase in April

Edinburgh Live

10-07-2025

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Fares are set to be hiked on a critical Edinburgh bus service operated by Lothian Buses after it was excluded from a network-wide fare increase in April.
The Airlink 100 service, connecting the city centre to Edinburgh Airport, will see fares for both singles and returns jump up 50p from Sunday, July 27.
Singles on the route, which runs via Haymarket, Murrayfield and Corstorphine, will jump up to £6.00, up from £5.50 prior to the change, while returns will go from £8.00 to £8.50.
And family returns will jump £2.00, from £20 to £22. However, passengers using a Ridacard or who reach the weekly contactless payment cap will not see an increase in prices.
And, special single fares between Maybury and the airport on the service will remain, with one adult ticket staying at £3.50 and a child fare remaining at £1.75.
In April, fares across the Lothian network were increased. Adult single tickets were hiked by 20p to £2.20, while day tickets were increased in price from £5.00 to £5.50.
The daily contactless fare cap was pushed up from £4.80 to £5.00, and the weekly cap jumped from £22.00 to £24.50.
Ridacards and child tickets also saw fare hikes, with a monthly Ridacard going from £62.00 to £68.00 and a yearly one from £650 to £700.
Fares on services in East and West Lothian were also increased, with most tickets getting a 20p increase.
The changes to the Airlink fares will not impact the city's other two airport bus services, the 17 and the 18.
They will retain their lower fares, which are in line with those on Lothian's other city bus services.
Before April, the two routes had special pricing, and were branded differently, but this was changed as part of revisions to the Lothian network that month..
The 17, which connects Leith to the airport, was known as the Skylink 200, while the 18, which ran between the airport and Fort Kinnaird, was the Skylink 400.
During the changes in April, Lothian also brought three bus routes in East Lothian – the 120, 121 and 123 – under its East Coast Buses brand.
The company had previously operated them through another subsidiary, Eve Coaches.
More information on the Airlink fare increase can be found here, and information on the April fare and service changes can be found here.