Glasgow Airport departures today

The live board below shows today’s Glasgow Airport departures: scheduled time, estimated time, airline, destination and current status for every flight leaving Glasgow today, updated continuously until each aircraft is airborne. Glasgow handles more than 7 million passengers a year from a single terminal, with easyJet, Jet2, British Airways and Loganair carrying most of them, so the board rewards a flight number or a destination to search for. Whether you are flying today, dropping someone off or checking whether a delay is real, today’s Glasgow flight departures are all on this one page.

Before you fly: one terminal, how early, and where the queues are

Glasgow’s single terminal makes the airport easy to read: check-in and bag drop are on the ground floor, security is upstairs, and all gates lie beyond it along two piers, with the international pier at the far end. The airport’s own advice is 2 hours before a European flight and 3 hours before long-haul, and it holds. The busiest moment at security is the first wave between 05:30 and 08:00, when easyJet and Jet2 push their based aircraft out towards the London airports and the Mediterranean at once; the second is the mid-afternoon bank of holiday departures. Bag drop closes 40 to 60 minutes before departure for most airlines, and the walk to the furthest gates takes about 10 minutes.

Island flights are the exception in every sense. Loganair, based here, flies the Scottish island network from Glasgow: Barra, Tiree, Campbeltown, Islay, Benbecula, Stornoway, Kirkwall and Sumburgh, mostly on small turboprops with strict baggage limits and check-in deadlines that come earlier than the jet flights. The Barra service is timed to the tide, because the aircraft lands on the beach, so its scheduled time can move from day to day and the estimated column on this board is the one to watch.

Reading the board: from Scheduled to Departed

The status column walks through a departure in order. Scheduled means the timetable still stands; Delayed means the estimated column is now the truth. Go to Gate and Boarding mean exactly what they say, Final Call means the gate is about to shut, Gate Closed means it has, and Departed means the aircraft has left. Gates at Glasgow are usually published 40 to 60 minutes before departure, so an empty gate field early in the day is normal.

Delays at Glasgow tend to come from two directions. The first is the inbound aircraft: the jet operating your 17:30 to Alicante is usually the one that flew out at 06:00 and back, so a slow morning in Spain becomes a late afternoon at Abbotsinch. The second is the weather at the destination or en route rather than at Glasgow itself, since the airport’s single runway, aligned with the prevailing south-westerly wind, copes well with most of what the Clyde throws at it. Winter fog and the occasional storm do close the approach for an hour or two, and then the departures back up behind the arrivals that are being worked in.

Once a flight shows Departed, enter its flight number in the live flight radar on our homepage and you will see the aircraft as a moving symbol, with route, altitude and speed all the way to its destination. On the dedicated Glasgow flight radar you can watch departures climb out over Paisley and the Clyde. Meeting someone flying in instead? The Glasgow arrivals board does the same job in the other direction.

Getting to Glasgow Airport: the 500 bus, Paisley, and the £7 drop-off

Glasgow Airport has no railway station of its own. The Glasgow Airport Express, bus 500, runs between Buchanan bus station in the city centre and the terminal in about 15 minutes, up to every 10 minutes by day and 24 hours a day at a lower frequency overnight, calling at Queen Street and Central stations on the way. The nearest railway station is Paisley Gilmour Street, just over a mile from the terminal, with the McGill’s 757 bus or a taxi for the last stretch and frequent trains to Glasgow Central.

By car, here is what the signs tell you too late: stopping in the Express drop-off area beside the terminal costs £7 for up to 15 minutes, and staying longer means a much higher charge on exit. The free alternative is the Long Stay car park, free for up to 1 hour, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal every few minutes; allow an extra 15 minutes for it. Charges change, so believe the signs on the day.

Frequently asked questions

How early should I be at Glasgow Airport?

2 hours before a European flight and 3 hours before long-haul. For a Loganair island flight, check the airline’s own check-in deadline, which is earlier than for jet flights.

Which airlines fly from Glasgow?

easyJet, Jet2, British Airways and Loganair carry most of the traffic, joined by Ryanair, KLM, Emirates, TUI, Aer Lingus and a number of seasonal holiday airlines. Our easyJet flight tracker and BA flight status pages explain how to find those airlines’ aircraft on the radar.

Why has my Barra flight changed time?

Because the aircraft lands on the beach at Barra, and the beach is only usable at low tide. Loganair times the flight to the tide table, so the scheduled time shifts from day to day; the board shows today’s time.

Can I watch my flight after it has departed?

Yes: put the flight number into the radar on our homepage and follow it to its destination, or watch it climb out on the Glasgow flight radar page.