The European airport
transfer index 2026.

The records

Each of the 161 airports, in 140 cities, is a record on this site of every way from the airport into the city that has a published fare: rail, metro, tram, bus, coach, boat, the regulated taxi where one is fixed, and the pre-booked transfers the site lists. Every fare, timetable and journey time in a record carries the URL it was read from and the day it was read; the site cannot be built if one is missing. A record is due for a re-check after 90 days for an official source and 45 for a secondary one, and the site cannot be published while any record is 180 or 120 days old. This edition's records were last checked between 2026-09-18 and 2026-10-19. The rules are those of how we check fares.

Reading a fare

The center is the place each airport's page names (San Marco for Venice, Termini for Rome), and the fare is the adult single for the whole journey to it, with a group ticket applied where the operator sells one and a vehicle fare (a regulated taxi, a pre-booked car) shared by the party. Options that stop short of the center are not counted. A "from" price is a floor: the operator publishes only the lowest it charges, so it is flagged and never ranked. A stand-in fare is a real ticket priced in place of a cheaper one the site could not source (at Barcelona); the true price is lower, so its airport is not ranked either. A service that runs only at night, or for under six hours a day, is not the cheapest way in for someone landing at an unknown hour. A seasonal service out of season on the edition date is not counted as a way in at all. A pre-booked transfer charged in euro on a board in another currency keeps the euro price it is charged at in every euro figure; its local figure in the CSV is a conversion at the same rates, as on the airport pages, not a published fare. A taxi on the meter with an "about" fare, or a company's own taxi price with fees on top, is an estimate and never firm.

The dates

The edition is dated 19 October 2026, the day it was frozen and published. The figures, the CSV and the chart images are those of that day and do not move; the records do, on each airport's page. A later edition will have its own address, and this one will stay as it is.

The rates

A euro figure is the local fare divided by the rate in the table above, each with its publisher and the day it is for. Euro fares are not converted, and a transfer charged in euro keeps the euro price it is charged at. Figures are printed, and ranked, to the cent unless whole: two converted fares that fall within the same cent are a tie, listed by name (Belfast and Tenerife South at €9.35).

The definitions

Cheapest and dearest

Measured: the cheapest option that reaches the city center, for one adult on a single journey, at its published fare, converted to euro at the rates below. A service that runs only at night, or for under six hours a day, is not counted as the cheapest. Ranked: the 143 airports whose board prices a bus, train, tram, metro or boat to the center and whose cheapest fare is firm. 18 are left out and listed below the charts: 6 where no such line is priced, so the cheapest priced way in is a car, 11 whose cheapest fare is a "from" price and 1 with a stand-in fare on the board.

Median for one, median for four

The middle value of the cheapest fare for one at the 143 ranked airports. The middle value of the cheapest total for a party of four at the 142 airports with a priced line where that total is firm.

What the other airport costs

Measured: for each city with more than one airport on the Index (15 cities, 36 airports), the cheapest way from each airport to that city's center for one adult, and its journey time. The gap is the dearest airport's fare minus the cheapest's; it is stated only where the cheaper fare ranks, and as "at least" where the dearer one is a "from" price.

Where the answer changes for a group

Measured: the smallest party, from two to eight travelers, at which the cheapest option to the center changes, because a vehicle fare is shared or a group ticket applies. Counted at the 131 airports whose board prices a line to the center and has no "from" price or stand-in fare, since a floor cannot name a crossing; a crossing that rests on a metered taxi's estimate is not counted either; it happens at 7 of them. A tie, where the new answer costs the same and is listed first only because it is quicker, is not counted (Valencia). "Already at four" lists the airports where the cheapest option for four is a different one from the cheapest for one and costs the party less, both at firm fares (2 airports).

The quickest ways in

Measured: the quickest option that reaches the center, of any kind, taxis and pre-booked cars included, by its published journey time, the upper end where a range is published; a service that runs only at night, or for under six hours a day, counts only where nothing else does; all 161 airports. At 78 of the 161 the quickest way in is a taxi or a pre-booked car.

The express premium

Measured: the fastest option's fare for one divided by the cheapest option's fare for one, and the minutes the fastest saves. Counted at the 77 ranked airports where the fastest fare is firm too (not a "from" price, a stand-in or a metered taxi's estimate), the cheapest is not free, and the two are different options; at 60 airports the cheapest way in is also the fastest.

Landing in the middle of the night

Measured: whether something reaches the center at every hour of the night, from sourced hours only. "A line runs all night" needs a train, metro, tram, bus, coach or boat whose operator says it runs at all hours; "only a taxi or a transfer" means the all-hours option is a taxi or pre-booked car the operator or the airport says runs at any hour. A night bus or night train that runs for part of the night, between a first and a last departure with gaps, is named beside its airport (25 airports) but not counted as running all night. Where nothing is sourced as running at every hour, the airport is "the taxi rank" if its record holds the airport's taxi note but no published fare, and "unknown" if it holds no taxi at all. All 161 airports.

Regulated flat taxi fares

Measured: a taxi fare to the center fixed by a public authority for the whole vehicle, not a meter, a minimum or a "from" price; 23 of the 161 airports have one. Other airports have a meter, a cap or a taxi company's own price, which are not ranked. 22 are converted to euro and ranked; Belgrade's, in RSD, has no rate and stays in its own currency.

What is left out, and why

• 18 airports from the cheapest and dearest rankings, the medians and the express premium: 6 whose board prices no bus, train, tram, metro or boat to the center, so that a car would rank as the cheapest way in where a bus runs without a timetable or a fare the site can print; 11 whose cheapest fare is a "from" price; 1 with a stand-in fare. By name: Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa, Milan Bergamo, London Stansted, London Luton, London Gatwick, Gothenburg, Mykonos, Dalaman, Bodrum, Tivat, Podgorica, Skopje, Memmingen, Brussels Charleroi, Frankfurt Hahn, Barcelona El Prat and Warsaw Modlin.
• Valencia from the group finding, where the new answer costs the party the same and is listed first only on time.
• Belgrade airport from every converted figure except its free bus, because the Serbian dinar has no rate.
• Unknown nights: an airport with no all-night option and no taxi on record is listed as unknown, never counted as having nothing; there is none in this edition.
• Metered taxis, ride-hailing and car hire, which publish no fare to the center that can be ranked.

The CSV

european-airport-transfer-index-2026.csv has one row per airport, the same figures as this page. Its first lines, each starting with #, give the edition, the licence and every rate with its source and day. The columns:

The data is free to reuse with attribution, under CC BY 4.0: credit "airporttocitycenter.com, European airport transfer index 2026" and link this page. Each chart has an image to download, in a light and a dark version. Corrections: contact.