Ingliston, Edinburgh, Scotland

Flying in the morning with Ryanair, easyJet, Jet2.com or British Airways? The free Twilight service takes hold bags the evening before — Ryanair 17:00–21:00, easyJet 16:00–20:00, Jet2.com 16:30–21:00, BA 16:00–20:00 — as long as you already hold a boarding pass. On timing, the airport is unusually direct: match your arrival to your own desk’s opening, since standing in the hall at 04:00 achieves nothing if that desk opens at 06:00.

This was the first airport in Scotland to retire the 100ml liquids limit, after a £24 million overhaul that added eight new X-rays and brought the search area to eight lanes: containers up to two litres now ride through inside your bag, and laptops and tablets stay packed too. Metal bottles and flasks must be empty. The paid fastTRACK lane operates 04:00–19:00 daily, to the left of the boarding-pass e-gates, and comes bundled free with Multi-storey parking bookings arriving between 03:30 and 18:00.

No trains call at the airport itself — the tram is the rail connection. Edinburgh Gateway, Edinburgh Park and Haymarket stations each have their own tram stop, Waverley is a short walk from St Andrew Square, and vending machines in the check-in hall sell combined tram-and-train tickets covering ScotRail, LNER, TransPennine Express, CrossCountry and Avanti services.

Request assistance through your airline — ideally when booking, and at least 48 hours before you fly — or pre-book it on the PRM Assist app, which passes the job to OCS, the airport’s assistance provider. The Special Assistance reception stands beside the Zone D check-in doors, and sunflower lanyards are handed out there or in the Security Hall on the day of travel.