AirportExit
Verified Oct 2026
← All airports

Stuttgart Airport (STR)

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

The answer
Take the S2 or S3 S-Bahn — €4.90 for a two-zone VVS ticket, 27 minutes to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, from a station built into Terminal 1.
Stuttgart city is one VVS zone and the airport is in the next one out, so the airport run is a two-zone ticket; both lines together run every seven or eight minutes and the platform is inside the terminal building, under the arrivals level.
Tight budget? Nothing is cheaper than the same two-zone ticket on the U6, and the €3.70 one-zone fare stops inside the city.
Late at night? The S-Bahn stops in the small hours — the N8 night bus from Schlossplatz is the link.

🚆 Every way out — real prices

S2 / S3 S-Bahn BEST FOR MOST
€4.90
27 min to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, each line every 15 min and roughly every 7–8 min together, from a station directly beneath Terminal 1 — the western end of the mezzanine reaches T1 and the trade fair, the eastern end Terminal 3. Two VVS zones, because Stuttgart city is zone 1 and Flughafen/Messe is zone 2: €4.90 at the machine, €4.45 as a HandyTicket, €2.10 for children 6 to 14.
U6 Stadtbahn
€4.90
About 30 min from Hauptbahnhof, every 10 min in the core hours, running until about 01:30. Its Flughafen/Messe stop is a 5-minute walk from the terminals rather than under them, and it also serves the Messe. Same two-zone VVS fare as the S-Bahn, and it is the standard fallback whenever the S-Bahn line to the airport is closed.
Taxi (official rank)
€38–42
Metered on the Stuttgart tariff: €4.20 base, €3.00 per km for the first 4 km, €2.50 per km beyond, waiting €38 per hour and €7.00 extra for a large vehicle. Hauptbahnhof is about 14 km and usually lands near €42 in 20 minutes; the city centre about €38. Traffic in the Neckar valley can stretch both the time and the fare.
N8 night bus
€4.90
The S-Bahn does not run through the small hours, so the airport's own advice is the N8 night bus: it leaves Schlossplatz at 03:40 and reaches the airport in about 40 min, and also runs late in the evening. Standard VVS fare — two zones to or from the city centre. A Kurzstrecke ticket is not valid on night buses.
Regiobus X3 / X10 / X60
VVS fare
Express regional buses run to the airport without a change: X3 from Reutlingen, X10 from Kirchheim unter Teck and X60 from Leonberg, with X10 and X60 running twice an hour at peak. They use the Stuttgart Airport Busterminal between Flughafenstraße and Terminal 4, where the long-distance coaches also stop. The fare is the ordinary VVS zone fare for your starting point.
Were these prices still right when you passed through? Be the first to confirm

⚠️ The traps (walk past these)

It is a two-zone ticket, and the one-zone fare stops short

The VVS prices by zones travelled, and Stuttgart city is a single zone (zone 1) while Flughafen/Messe sits in zone 2, in Leinfelden-Echterdingen. So the airport run needs a 2-zone ticket at €4.90 (€4.45 as a HandyTicket). The €3.70 one-zone single does not reach the airport, and the €2.20 Kurzstrecke covers one stop on the S-Bahn. There are no barriers, but inspectors work the S-Bahn and the penalty fare is €60.

Do this: buy a 2-zone ticket — the VVS app picks the zones for you and is 45 cents cheaper
The S-Bahn link to the airport closes for long blocks of works

The airport S-Bahn runs on a bottleneck that is taken out of service for weeks at a time. In 2026 the line was shut from 20 July to 12 September, with replacement buses and the U6 Stadtbahn carrying passengers, and the airport's own travel page still carries the warning. Airlines and booking sites never mention it. If the line is closed, the U6 from Hauptbahnhof takes about 30 min and drops you a 5-minute walk from the terminals.

Do this: check the VVS works notice before you travel and plan on the U6 if the S-Bahn is out
The fare went up on 1 September 2026

The VVS raised fares by an average of 5.95% on 1 September 2026. A one-zone single went from €3.50 to €3.70 and a two-zone single from €4.50 to €4.90; a two-zone day ticket is now €9.00. Pages written before September still show the old numbers, and some quote €3.20 for the airport, which was the tariff that ended in 2024. A HandyTicket bought in the app is about 5% cheaper than the machine at every level.

Do this: work from the September 2026 prices: €4.90, or €4.45 in the app, for the airport
Nothing runs to the airport between about 01:00 and 04:00

The S2 and S3 stop for the night, and the airport's own guidance for the small hours is the N8 night bus, which leaves Schlossplatz at 03:40 and takes about 40 min. Travellers who assume a 24-hour S-Bahn end up in the arrivals hall waiting for a taxi, and the taxi queue at 02:00 is the most expensive place at Stuttgart Airport to be.

Do this: check the last S-Bahn and the N8 times before booking a late arrival

💡 Know before you walk

Still accurate? Be the first to confirm
📄 Take it offline
One-page PDF — download before you fly. Works with zero signal.
Download PDF

Report a change — 4 taps

No comments, no accounts. Your report is reviewed and merged into the guide before it appears.