Virgin Atlantic inaugurated Edinburgh to Orlando International on March 30th. It is the first time the airport-pair has been served on a scheduled basis and the first time in over 20 years that it has had any flights at all. According to the UK CAA, long-gone American Trans Air operated 65 round-trip charter flights from 1996 to 2000.

Edinburgh has had other Florida services before. TUI Airways (previously Thomson) served Orlando Sanford infrequently between July 2012 and July 2019. While Sanford has gone, TUI will launch Edinburgh to Melbourne Orlando International on June 16th.

Traditionally, Scotland to Orlando was served from Glasgow, including by Virgin. However, the carrier ended its long-standing Glasgow operation in 2021, and Orlando is now served from the Scottish capital instead.

In 2019, when non-stops operated from Glasgow, Edinburgh was a decent-sized unserved market on its own. According to booking data, it had approximately 30,000 round-trip passengers, excluding those leaked from Edinburgh's catchment area to Glasgow.

Edinburgh to Orlando International

Virgin's 4,165-mile (6,703km) summer-seasonal route has flights from the US on Tuesdays and Fridays and to the US on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

It leaves the US the day before because it uses Manchester-based A330-300s, routing Manchester-Orlando-Edinburgh-Orlando-Manchester. These 264-seat aircraft have 31 Upper Class suites (1-1-1), 48 in premium economy recliners (2-3-2), and 185 in economy (2-4-2).

The 2x weekly service is scheduled as follows, with all times local:

• Orlando to Edinburgh: VS226, 18:10-07:20+1 (the next day)
• Edinburgh to Orlando: VS225, 10:20-14:30

Virgin's only Edinburgh route – for now

Orlando is presently Virgin's only route from the Scottish capital. That'll change in December when it begins Barbados. The winter-seasonal route was expected to start last December, but it has been postponed a year.

The 2x weekly service takes off to the Caribbean on December 12th. Flights to Edinburgh will operate on Wednesdays and Sundays and from Edinburgh on Mondays and Thursdays. Like Orlando, they'll be by the A330-300 and use Manchester aircraft, with the schedule as follows:

• Barbados to Edinburgh: VS224, 17:50-06:20+1 (the next day)
• Edinburgh to Barbados: VS223, 10:15-15:25

Long-haul routes this summer

Assuming long-haul is anything beyond 3,000 miles (4,828km), Edinburgh has over half a million seats for sale this summer, based on Cirium data. While that is 'only' 72% of what it had in summer 2019, it hides the fact that Virgin (Orlando) and WestJet (Toronto) are brand-new this year.

Note: Moreover, Air Canada has also more than doubled the number of Toronto departures versus 2019. They'll be by mainline B787-8s rather than the Rouge B767-300ERs that operated previously (they were retired or converted to freighters).

These developments aren't enough to offset the loss of American to Philadelphia, Emirates to Dubai, or Hainan to Beijing (it routed Beijing-Edinburgh-Dublin and back). However, spare a thought for Glasgow, whose long-haul capacity is less than half of what it was and has declined to its lowest level in over a decade.

Up to nine long-haul departures a day

Edinburgh will have up to nine long-haul departures a day this summer. According to Cirium, the pinnacle is July 6th, with the following all operating:

1. 09:40: United to Newark; B757-200ER
2. 10:15: Air Canada to Toronto; B787-8
3. 10:20: Virgin to Orlando; A330-300
4. 10:25: WestJet to Toronto; B737 MAX 8
5. 10:45: United to Chicago; B757-200ER
6. 10:50: Delta to JFK; B767-300ER
7. 11:55: TUI to Cancun; B787-8
8. 12:30: United to Washington; B757-200ER
9. 14:55: Qatar to Doha; B787-8