Lisbon Airport to the City: What Each Option Costs in 2026

The metro from Lisbon airport costs 1.72 euros on a stored value card and reaches Saldanha in about 20 minutes. A taxi to the centre should cost 10 to 20 euros. Two things most guides still get wrong. The Aerobus does not run any more, and the city bus will not take your suitcase. This page sets out what every option costs, checked against ANA, Metro Lisboa and Carris in September 2026.

What each option costs

Four corrections before anything else

• The Aerobus does not operate. It is not listed anywhere on the airport’s own transport page. Metro Lisboa’s website still mentions it, which is how travellers checking an official source get misled.
• FREE NOW left Portugal on 3 April 2023. Do not download it. Uber and Bolt are the apps that work.
• The Viva Viagem name is retired. The reusable card is now called navegante ocasional and costs 0.50 euros.
• Tapping a contactless bank card is the most expensive way to ride the metro, not the cheapest. It costs 1.92 euros a journey against 1.90 for a pre-bought ticket and 1.72 with zapping.

The metro

The station is the terminus of the Red Line and it is inside the terminal building, in the arrivals area. That is as convenient as airport rail gets.

Fares from 1 January 2026 are 1.90 euros for a single valid one hour, 1.72 with zapping loaded on a navegante ocasional card, 7.25 for a 24 hour Carris and Metro ticket, 10.35 if you add the ferry to Cacilhas and 11.40 if you add the CP trains. The card itself costs 0.50 and is not refundable, so it pays for itself in under three journeys.

Where you change depends on where you are staying.

• Parque das Nacoes needs no change. Oriente is on the Red Line, about 10 minutes out.
• Saldanha is about 20 minutes, direct.
• Rossio, Baixa-Chiado and Cais do Sodre mean changing at Alameda onto the Green Line. Do not go through the gates when you change or you will spend your ticket.
• Sao Sebastiao is the other interchange, onto the Blue Line, which also reaches Baixa-Chiado.

Trains run every 6 minutes on weekday mornings. The station opens at 06:30 and last entry is 01:00. Metro Lisboa publishes those as station hours rather than train departure times, so we will not present them as a first and last train.

The bus, and the luggage rule that rules it out

ANA states it plainly on its own page. Only luggage up to 50 by 40 by 20 cm is allowed on city buses. That is smaller than most cabin bags and nowhere near a checked suitcase. If you have hold luggage, the bus is not an option.

If you are travelling light, route 744 is the useful one. It runs from Restauradores, on Rossio’s doorstep, out to Moscavide via Marques de Pombal, Avenida da Liberdade, Saldanha and Entrecampos, roughly 06:25 to 21:40. Route 705 runs between Oriente and Roma-Areeiro from 06:40 to 20:10. Route 783 runs to Amoreiras from around midnight to just before midnight.

Paying the driver costs 2.30 euros. Zapping costs 1.72. That is 34 percent more for not preparing.

One inconsistency worth flagging. ANA lists routes 208, 705 and 744 at the airport. Metro Lisboa lists 705, 722, 744 and 783. We could not confirm 722 on the operator’s own route pages.

Taxis, and the overcharging problem

The published rates are 3.25 euros to start between 06:00 and 21:00, then 0.94 a kilometre. At night, at weekends and on holidays it is 3.90 to start and 1.18 a kilometre. Luggage costs 1.60 an item and booking by phone or app adds 0.80.

There is no airport surcharge on taxis at Lisbon. What people experience as one is the per bag charge. The one euro airport fee that does exist applies to Uber and Bolt, not to taxis.

What the trip should cost is disputed. ANA says 10 to 15 euros including luggage fees. A guide updated in August 2026 says 15 to 20 plus the bag charge. The official voucher scheme charges 16.00 to 27.90 for central Lisbon in the day.

Now the part that matters. Lisbon has a documented, prosecuted airport taxi fraud problem.

• 254 taxi drivers were arrested in Lisbon during 2025 for price speculation, 297 nationwide.
• Around 40 more were detained in January and February 2026 alone.
• More than 200 were detained in the Lisbon region in the first five months of 2026.
• Police use unmarked vehicles and report two or three arrests a day after 19:00. Illegal profit can reach 500 euros a day for one driver.

The methods are specific. Meters switched off, or hidden behind a no smoking sign or a metal plate. Remote controlled devices that speed the meter up. Meters restarted mid journey. Reported cases include 30 euros a person for a trip worth about 10, and 38 euros charged instead of 13.80.

ANA’s own instruction is that you contract transport on site or by app, never by someone approaching you in the terminal.

The fixed price voucher

If you want a price agreed before you get in, buy a taxi voucher at the Ask Me Lisboa desk in the arrivals hall. It is a fixed price by zone, run under a protocol between the airport, the taxi federation and the tourism authority.

It is not the cheapest way into town. It is the cheapest genuinely fixed one, and it removes the meter from the conversation.

A new taxi pricing rule is coming

Regulation 717 of 2026 was published on 9 June 2026. It replaces the fixed tariff table with a formula that counts distance and time together, cuts the flag drop from 3.25 to 2.00 euros, abolishes the luggage supplement and the pet supplement, keeps only the 0.80 booking charge, and caps increases at 9 percent in the first year.

When it takes effect is genuinely unclear. One source says 20 June 2026. Another says the end of August after a 60 day postponement negotiated with the taxi federations. The most recent, from 26 August 2026, says 1 October 2026, tied to the ride hailing law timetable.

So the meter you see today is probably still running on the old table with the 1.60 bag charge. The luggage charge is on its way out. The date is not settled.

Uber and Bolt

A new ride hailing law, Lei 59 of 2026, came into force on 1 September 2026. It caps the platform’s commission at 25 percent before VAT, requires a post trip breakdown of how the price was calculated, raises the maximum vehicle age from 7 years to 10, and allows taxis to register as ride hailing vehicles.

The pickup point is not the kerb. It is car park P2 at arrivals level, floor 2. A one euro airport fee is charged to you and passed to the airport. Since November 2024 only vehicles on an active trip may enter that car park, with a 30 minute maximum stay.

A Bolt fare of 9.70 euros to central Lisbon was reported in February 2026, and about 10 euros is the usual figure. Waits are longest between 17:00 and midnight, especially on Friday and Saturday.

After the metro closes

Last entry to the metro is 01:00 and it reopens at 06:30. In between there is one night bus at the airport, route 208, which runs from Cais do Sodre to Oriente and stops at the airport. Fare 2.30 on board or 1.72 with zapping. Taxis work all night on the higher tariff, and Uber and Bolt run 24 hours from P2.

Getting to Belem

Belem has no metro and no airport bus. From the airport it is the Red Line to Alameda, the Green Line to Cais do Sodre, then tram 15E or the Cascais line train. With luggage that is over an hour. Tram fare is 3.30 on board or 1.72 with zapping.

Residents pay less than you do

This is worth knowing because it explains why local advice about prices does not match yours. The monthly navegante pass has been 40 euros for a seventh consecutive year, the Lisbon municipal pass is 30, residents under 23 travel free, and Lisbon residents over 65 travel free within the municipality. Occasional tickets, the ones visitors buy, went up about 2.28 percent on 1 January 2026.

Passes need residency and are not available to visitors. Your cheapest instrument is zapping at 1.72 a journey, or the 7.25 euro 24 hour ticket if you will make five or more journeys in a day.

What we could not confirm

The taxi tariff text. The figures above are widely published and internally consistent, but the government’s own gazette blocks automated access, so we could not read the source regulation directly.

The exact date the Aerobus stopped, and any formal announcement.

Whether route 722 serves the airport.

The 208 night bus timetable.

Metro journey times to Rossio, Baixa-Chiado and Cais do Sodre. Metro Lisboa publishes no station to station times. Allow roughly 25 to 35 minutes with the change at Alameda and treat that as our estimate.

Current Uber and Bolt per kilometre rates for Lisbon.

Sources

• Lisbon Airport, public transport
• Metro Lisboa, Aeroporto station
• Metro Lisboa, 2026 fares
• Carris, 2026 fares
• Visit Lisboa, taxi voucher prices
• Publico, 200 taxi drivers detained in the Lisbon region
• The Portugal News, new ride hailing law
• Uber, Lisbon airport pickup