Belfast International Airport (BFS)

Last verified: October 2026 · Confirmed by travelers this month: 0

The answer

Take the Translink Airport Express 300 from the front of the terminal to Belfast Grand Central Station in 30–40 minutes — £8.00 a single on the mLink app versus £9.50 cash on board, seven days a week with buses every 15 minutes at weekday peak.

It is the only dedicated public-transport link to the city (there is no rail at Aldergrove), it runs through the night, and its £13.50 return ticket is valid for a whole month — the rare airport bus that rewards you for buying ahead.

Tight budget? Buy the £13.50 one-month return instead of two £9.50 singles — £5.50 back in your pocket.
In a hurry? The official Belfast Airport Taxis rank outside the right-hand door is 25–35 minutes door to door, roughly £35–45, with a formal taxi-share scheme if you can find a co-rider.

🚌 Every way out — real prices

Airport Express 300 bus BEST FOR MOST

£8.00 app / £9.50 cash

Translink coach standing at the main exit; 30–40 minutes to Belfast Grand Central Station depending on traffic, seven days a week, every 15 minutes at weekday peak plus overnight and early-morning departures. Pay on board (contactless or cash), at the airport's ticket vending machine, the Visit Belfast desk, or the mLink app — the app single is £8.00 versus £9.50 cash, a one-month return is £13.50, and a 10-journey Smartlink card is £60. Child fares are half. All vehicles are low-floor accessible.

Taxi (official rank — Belfast Airport Taxis)

≈£35–45 (range)

Only airport-approved cars may use the rank, outside the right-hand door of the exit lobby, 24/7. There is no published online fare table — sample fares are displayed on a board inside the terminal exit hall only, so check the board and confirm before setting off. Roughly 30 minutes to the city.

Taxi-share scheme

cab fare, split

Belfast Airport Taxis run an official ride-share: passengers heading the same way split one cab. Arrange in advance on +44 (0)7725 196 713 or info@belfastairporttaxis.com — it can beat two £9.50 bus tickets with door-to-door luggage.

Rail + Ulsterbus 109A 'Airlink' ticket

£2.20 add-on

For onward travel the other direction: the £2.20 Airlink ticket connects rail journeys north of Antrim (Ballymena, Coleraine, Portrush, University of Ulster, Castlerock, Derry~Londonderry) onto the 109A bus into the terminal; the same route links Lisburn Rail Station. Sold by train conductors, 109A drivers, the airport TVM and the Visit Belfast desk.

Aircoach 705X long-distance coach

online-priced

The only direct service from the airport to Derry~Londonderry, and it runs on to Dublin City via Dublin Airport — 13 express departures each way daily (not Christmas Day). Departs from the coach park behind the taxi rank; buy online.

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⚠️ The traps (walk past these)

'£5 single' guides are years stale

Old Translink publicity and aggregator pages promise Smartlink singles at £5. The operator's last published fare revision set the cash single at £9.00 from June 2024, and the airport's own fare table now shows £9.50 cash / £13.50 monthly return / £60 ten-journey, with £8.00 only on the mLink app. Budget to the current table, not the blog.

Do this: buy on mLink for £8.00 or pay £9.50 — and treat any £5 claim as expired

Europa BusCentre is gone

Legacy guides end the 300 at 'Europa Bus Centre'. Translink's airport pages now list the city-side stop as Belfast Grand Central Station, the hub that replaced Europa, with rail and coach connections under the same new roof — and its ticket machines now stand there instead.

Do this: aim for Grand Central; your onward train or Goldline coach leaves from the same building

Two singles cost more than the return

Cash singles are £9.50 each — £19.00 round trip — while the £13.50 one-month return saves £5.50 if you fly back out of Belfast International. On mLink it is starker: £11.00 for the monthly return against two £8.00 singles.

Do this: buy the one-month return the moment you arrive if you depart from BFS too

There is no rail — and no published taxi fare

No station at Aldergrove, never has been; the bus or a cab is the whole menu. And the official taxi ranks by terminal sample-fare board, not website, so a driver quoting 'the usual' means nothing until you see the number.

Do this: photo the fare board in the exit hall, then agree the price before setting off

💡 Know before you walk

Buses run 7 days and into the night — weekday peak every 15 minutes, and Translink added overnight/early-morning departures in its enhanced summer timetable.
Download the mLink app before you land: £8.00 digital single, no fumbling for cash at the TVM.
Regular user? The £60 Smartlink 10-journey card works out at £6.00 a trip — £3.50 under cash.
Coming from Derry, Portrush or Ballymena by train, the £2.20 Airlink add-on onto the 109A beats any cab from Antrim.
Aircoach's Derry/Dublin runs board in the coach park BEHIND the taxi rank — don't queue in the wrong place.

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📄 Take it offline

One-page PDF — download before you fly. Works with zero signal.

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Belfast International Airport (BFS)

🚌 Every way out — real prices

⚠️ The traps (walk past these)

💡 Know before you walk

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