Home / Valletta /Malta International Airport / Taxi, pre-paid booth ticket vs Airport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa

MLA → Valletta · head to head

Taxi, pre-paid booth ticketorAirport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa?

The short answer

These do not go to the same place, so price is not the comparison. The Taxi, pre-paid booth ticket reaches the Valletta bus terminus outside City Gate, by the Triton Fountain — bay B1, where the TD4 sets down, with the whole walled city on foot from there; the Airport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa does not. Runs north-west to Rabat, Buġibba, Mellieħa and the Gozo ferry at Ċirkewwa, nowhere near Valletta. Take the TD4 for the city.

The Taxi, pre-paid booth ticket is quicker: 15 min against 48 min. The Airport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa varies between 39 and 53 minutes.

Taxi, pre-paid booth ticket: Runs all night. Airport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa: 05:00–00:00.

Priced against each other

Whole-party totals · adult fares
What each costs for the whole party, in EUR. The cheaper of the two is marked on every row.
TravelersTaxi, pre-paid booth ticketAirport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and ĊirkewwaDifference
1€17€3.50€13.50
2€17€7€10
3€17€10.50€6.50
4€17€14€3
5€17€17.50€0.50
6€25.50€19€6.50
7€25.50€22.50€3
8€25.50€26€0.50

The cheaper option changes at 5 travelers, from the Airport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa to the Taxi, pre-paid booth ticket. The cheaper option changes at 6 travelers, from the Taxi, pre-paid booth ticket to the Airport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa. The cheaper option changes at 8 travelers, from the Airport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa to the Taxi, pre-paid booth ticket. That is the whole reason this comparison is not a single number.

Side by side

Where each one leaves you
taxi · Licensed white taxis from the airport booth; tariff set by the Taxi Services Regulations (Transport Malta)Taxi, pre-paid booth ticket
From
The taxi booth at arrivals — buy the ticket there, then the rank outside; the airport names Malta Taxi as its official service
To
Any address in Valletta, Floriana or at the Cruise Terminal at EUR 17; other localities at the table's price for them
Luggage
Included: the tariff has no luggage supplement, and regulation 47 obliges the driver to see that "the luggage is stored securely in the luggage booth".
Runs
All night
Journey
12–20 min

It loses to the bus at every party size, by EUR 1.50 at eight. EUR 17 seats five; the sixth passenger lifts it to EUR 25.50, and eight TD4 tickets are EUR 24. Its case is the night, the bags and the door.

Buy the ticket at the booth, not from the driver. The regulation requires the pre-paid ticket where a booth operates and forbids the driver to take the hire without it; the fiscal receipt half is yours to keep.

EUR 17 is the legal maximum for the ticket to Valletta. If the booth quotes less, pay less; if a driver asks for more than the ticket, the regulation is on your side.

More than five passengers costs half as much again, EUR 25.50, and Transport Malta says the rule "applies only to taxi vehicles which may legally carry more than 6 people"; ask the booth for one. Two ordinary cars are EUR 34.

The fare is by locality, not by zone: Floriana and the Cruise Terminal are EUR 17 like Valletta, but Sliema is EUR 20, St Julian's EUR 21 and Msida EUR 19. Say the town, not "the center".

No authority publishes a taxi journey time. The 15 minutes here is the TD4's timetabled 11 to 17 over the same road; allow more at the morning peak.

Between 00:50 and 05:20 it is the only thing that leaves, at the same EUR 17: the table has no night rate.

Taxi, pre-paid booth ticket: price for every party size →

shuttle · Malta Public Transport (tallinja)Airport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa
From
The "Airport 1" stop at the bus terminal outside arrivals — the TD4's stop
To
Buġibba Bay in 39 to 53 minutes, via Rabat and St Paul's Bay; then Qawra, Xemxija, Mellieħa and the Ċirkewwa ferry terminal at 64 to 90
Luggage
An Airport Direct bus: "ample luggage space", by the operator.
Runs
05:00–00:00
Journey
39–53 min

Hourly, on the hour; miss it and the wait is an hour. TD5 fills the same corridor to Buġibba six times a day, 08:20 to 13:20, for EUR 3.

EUR 3.50, not EUR 3: the twelve-journey card at two journeys a ride is cheaper here, EUR 3.17.

Ċirkewwa can take an hour and a half; the Gozo fast ferry from Lascaris Wharf in Valletta is the TD4's second stop.

The taxi table is EUR 28 to Buġibba, EUR 29 to St Paul's Bay and EUR 37 to Ċirkewwa for up to five.

Airport Direct TD1 to Buġibba and Ċirkewwa: price for every party size →

See Airport Direct fares from Malta Public Transport

This compares two of 6 options. See all of them ranked for your party size →

The other comparisons at Malta International Airport