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BUYING A CHEAP airline ticket to travel around Europe can be more expensive than expected: it can cost you time.
The use of secondary airports is a common practice among major low-cost airlines, such as Ryanair, WizzAir or Vueling, as it allows them to reduce operating costs – but sometimes, the customer ends up paying the difference in on-the-ground transport fees or spending the start of their holiday sitting on a bus for over an hour.
And in some cases, even a city’s primary airport can be located at a surprising distance from the city itself, or an airport can be physically close but with an extended travel time due to poor transport infrastructure.
A European journalism network called Pulse that includes The Journal Investigates has used Google Maps to estimate the average travel times by car, public transport and on foot from the main and secondary airports of cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, as well as the capitals of the member states of the European Union, to central points of these cities.
We’ve found out which airports are closest and furthest to their respective cities and how Dublin stacks up compared to elsewhere in Europe.
The network analysed the estimated travel times for three Wednesdays in March and April, considering both peak hours (8am in the morning) and off-peak hours (3pm in the afternoon) to reflect variations in travel times depending on traffic and the availability of public transport.
The worst airport for city centre transfers is Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, which is a 125km drive lasting an hour and a half to Frankfurt. That time rises to two hours and 25 minutes when using public transport.
France’s Beauvais-Tillé is 86 kilometres from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, while Stockholm-Skavsta is 107 kilometres from the old town of the Swedish capital.
In Belgium, the “Brussels-South” airport in Charleroi is 60 kilometres outside of Brussels centre. One passenger who travelled through the airport recently described deciding against taking a taxi because of a high fare price and instead taking the bus, which took an hour and a quarter and a transfer to reach the Grand Place in the heart of the city.
“It makes no sense for the airport to be called Brussels-South if it’s so far away,” he said.
In contrast, for a quick trip to the city centre, Bremen in Germany takes the cake. Its airport is just 3.9 kilometres from the Market Square, known for its traditional Christmas market, and can be covered in just 12 minutes by car or in 13 minutes using streetcar line 6.
The proximity of Bremen Airport to the old town is due to several factors. Its early construction, in 1913, facilitated its location in the immediate vicinity of the city centre. Although it was rebuilt after World War II, its relatively small size and its specialisation in domestic and European flights have obviated the need for major expansions that would have required its relocation.
Similarly, in Bulgaria, Sofia airport is located within the urban ring road of the Bulgarian capital and is only 12 minutes by car from St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the city’s main tourist attraction.
However, despite its location, serious traffic jams on Sofia’s main boulevard, “Tsarigradsko Shosse” (literally meaning “The Road to the Tsar City”) which follows the ancient Roman road to Constantinople, now Istanbul, can lengthen the journey by up to an hour.
This is because this road also provides access to residential areas where more than 300,000 people live and to Business Park Sofia, a business centre that houses hundreds of offices.
For this reason, many regular airport passengers prefer to travel by metro, which has a station next to Terminal 2 that takes about 27 minutes to reach the centre – but public transport does not operate at night, leaving taxis as the main option between 11.30pm and 5am.
The airport maintains a concession agreement with a single authorised cab company, with prices of around €10 to the centre and up to €20 to more distant areas, in an effort to avoid scams, as some unofficial cabs have charged between €50 and €100 to unsuspecting travellers.
In Ireland, connections between Dublin Airport and Dublin city centre aren’t quite as long or as cumbersome as the likes of Frankfurt-Hahn or Brussels-South, but certainly don’t have the convenience of Bremen either.
The journey from Dublin Airport to O’Connell Bridge in the centre of the city is about 15km and takes between 25 minutes to 45 minutes by car.
The direct Dublin Express bus takes about half an hour to get to the Eden Quay stop, give or take some time in traffic, and costs €9.
The cheaper options provided Dublin Bus generally take a little longer – around 45 to 50 minutes – to navigate from the airport to the city centre.
As anyone who has travelled through it will know, there’s no rail or light rail links at Dublin Airport.
The proposed MetroLink, a partly underground rail line that would run between Charlemont and Swords, has the potential to cut the travel time between the airport and city centre – but is still a long way off.
Italy is one of the countries with the greatest deficiencies in public transport connections between airports and urban centres.
Milan’s largest airport, Milan Malpensa, is 46 kilometres from the city centre and is only connected to it by a slow local train, ironically called the Malpensa Express.
Likewise, Milan Bergamo, the second busiest airport in terms of traffic around Milan, also has no rail connection with the capital of Lombardy, so passengers must rely on the shuttle bus service provided by companies such as Terravision or Flixbus.
Milan Linate, on the other hand, is the only Italian airport connected to the urban metro network, thanks to the inauguration of its link to line 4 in November 2022.
Since the end of 2020, Bologna airport has had a direct connection to the main train station with the Marconi Express. However, the line has been plagued by technical problems since its introduction, and the service, priced at €12.80 each way, is still quite expensive in relation to the quality offered: the two carriages are very small and fill up easily, and queues are often long.
None of the Italian cities connected by high-speed trains have a station directly connected to their airports, unlike, for example, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam-Schiphol or Frankfurt am Main, nor are there plans to introduce this type of service in the future.
In addition to the shortcomings in public transport, air traffic in Italy is characterised by the location of the operational base of low-cost airlines in smaller airports, with the consequent strain on travelers.
In the six Spanish cities studied – Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza and Malaga – it is possible to get from the airport to the city centre by car in less than half an hour.
The shortest journey times are recorded in Malaga and Zaragoza, where the distance can be covered by car in just 17 minutes.
On the other hand, public transport from the airports of Seville and Zaragoza to the centre of these cities is slightly slower than the average for the European cities analysed, with a time of around 50 minutes. Both cities have no rail connection to their airports and transfers are made by a special bus service.
The lack of rail connection with the Seville airport is a source of controversy between the central, local and regional administrations. The deadline for the presentation of a study by the Ministry of Transport on the railway connection between Seville-Santa Justa station and Seville airport expired on 10 March, although the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, assured in his X account that it will see the light “soon”.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1679, in force since July 2024, obliges member states to ensure that airports with more than four million passengers are connected to rail, metro, streetcar or zero-emission public transport by the end of 2050 “unless there are geographical or physical weight limitations that prevent such a connection”. Seville airport recorded 8.1 million passengers in 2023.
The shortest travel times by public transport in Spain were recorded in Madrid and Valencia, thanks to their connection with the metro. Passengers arriving at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas and Valencia International Airport can reach Puerta del Sol and Plaza del Ayuntamiento, respectively, in just half an hour, only six minutes later than by car.
In 2023, Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport was third in the European Union in terms of passenger traffic, with 60.1 million people transported, behind only Paris-Charles de Gaulle (67.4 million) and Amsterdam-Schiphol (61.9 million), according to Eurostat. Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airport ranked fifth in Europe, with 49.8 million passengers, and Palma de Mallorca airport came in eleventh place.
Amsterdam-Schiphol is one of only four European airports where public transport offers a faster connection to the city centre than private vehicles. This is also the case at the airports of Leipzig/Halle (Germany), Munich-Franz Josef Strauss (Germany) and Stockholm-Arlanda (Sweden).
A traveller can reach the centre of Leipzig, specifically the Market Square, in about 19 minutes from Leipzig/Halle Airport by public transport, compared to the 23 minutes it takes on average by taxi, traveling on the S5 and S5X commuter train lines. However, it all depends on what time you arrive; trains run every half hour.
In addition, Schiphol Airport is served by a railway station offering up to eight trains per hour per day, with reduced frequency at night, to Amsterdam Central Station, as well as connections to other major urban centres in the country. This makes rail transport a convenient option to avoid the congestion and delays of road traffic.
The other two airports where public transport saves time – Stockholm-Arlanda and Munich-Franz Josef Strauss International Airport – are characterised by their moderate distance from the city centre – 46 and 37 kilometres, respectively – and the usual road traffic congestion on the city’s access roads.
However, these alternatives also have drawbacks. In Munich, rail service to the airport is limited to commuter trains (S-Bahn S1 and S8), and in Stockholm, the Arlanda Express is fast, but its high price – €31 for a one-way ticket – makes it an expensive alternative, especially for those traveling in groups or looking for cheaper options.
But having the airport close to the urban centre does not always offer advantages for everyone, and in many cities it is the subject of controversy for environmental reasons, noise, gentrification or excessive tourism.
For example, the Portuguese government announced in November 2024 a ban on night flights between 1am and 5am at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport. This measure followed the approval in September of a unanimous motion among the political groups in Lisbon’s Municipal Chamber to reduce the number of movements per hour and to reject any increase in the airport’s capacity.
In Spain, the expansion of the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airport is also generating controversy because of its environmental impact on the La Ricarda lagoon, protected by the Natura 2000 Network, a European distinction that safeguards the conservation of natural habitats and fauna and flora. The Catalan Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, assured on 14 February that the work of the technical commission in charge of clarifying the airport expansion proposal would culminate “in the next few weeks”.
The controversies reflect the need to rethink the role of airports in urban development and their impact on sustainability.
This article was produced as part of PULSE, a European initiative coordinated by OBCT that supports transnational journalistic collaborations. José Ramón Pérez (El Confidencial, Spain) developed this article and accompanying graphics. Lorenzo Ferrari (OBCT), Krasen Nikolov (Mediapool, Bulgaria) and Davide Madeddu (Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy) contributed to its production.
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