Travel: Flights to Glasgow Prestwick from Birmingham (bhx)

Glasgow is served by two main airports close to the city:

• Glasgow International Airport (GLA) is the main airport for domestic flights and also has transatlantic links to Canada and the USA (Newark and Philadelphia). It also has a daily flight to Dubai. Both British Airways and BMI operate frequent shuttle flights to Glasgow Airport throughout the day to and from London Heathrow. If you are flying into the UK via Heathrow you will usually connect into Glasgow via one of these airlines. easyJet fly from Luton, Stansted and Gatwick. There's a frequent shuttle bus from outside the terminal building to the city centre, dropping off near both main railway stations (£3.30 single, £5.00 return; the journey takes about 20 minutes). In addition to this a "railbus" service operates via Paisley Gilmour Street railway station to the airport, simply get on a Paisley bound train at Central Station, alight at Gilmour Street, and a connecting bus will take you the short 2 miles to the terminal. One ticket (available at the railway station) will be valid for both legs of the journey.

• Glasgow Prestwick International Airport (PIK), about 50 km away on the Ayrshire coast, is the Scottish base for Ryanair (see Discount airlines in Europe), and several other low cost carriers, as well as some holiday charter operators. The airport has its own railway station with two trains per hour to Glasgow Central (show your flight paperwork to get a half price ticket; the journey takes around 45 minutes). All trains to Ayr and Stranraer call at the airport. The X77 bus also runs from Buchanan Bus Station to the airport throughout the day, and crucially covers the times (early morning and late evening) when the trains are not running.