Prague Airport to the Centre: The 46 Koruna Ticket and the Bus Number That Changed

The ticket you need from Prague airport costs 46 koruna in the app or 50 on paper. It gets you a trolleybus and the metro, door to door in about 35 minutes. Three things most guides still get wrong. Bus 119 no longer exists. The Airport Express was not discontinued. And the airport’s official taxi partner is now Uber. This page sets out what every option costs, checked against Prague Airport, DPP and PID in September 2026.

What each option costs

The airport is about 17 km west of the centre and sits in PID zone P, so a standard Prague ticket covers it. There is no airport supplement on public transport.

There is no train

Prague has no rail or metro link to its airport. The airport’s own words are that Prague is currently the only capital city in Europe without a rail connection to its airport.

A line is in planning, with a tunnel loop under Terminal 2, but no opening date has been published. Do not plan around it.

Bus 119 is now trolleybus 59

On 6 March 2024 the airport bus became a trolleybus and changed number. Signage says 59. It runs 24 metre articulated battery trolleybuses, the longest in the country, using overhead wire for most of the route and battery power around the terminals.

If you are looking for 119, you will not find it.

Line 191 is slower but needs no change, which is worth something with luggage.

The airport and the transport operator give slightly different bus leg times. The airport says 59 takes about 15 minutes and 100 about 18. The operator says 17 and 16. We use the operator’s figures and suggest allowing two minutes either way.

Which ticket, and the luggage rule

Buy the 90 minute ticket. The 30 minute one does not cover the bus and the metro, and the trip is 35 to 50 minutes door to door.

These are the rates from 1 January 2026. Most third party guides still quote 40 koruna for the 90 minute ticket, which was correct before that date.

The luggage charge is still in force and it catches most arrivals. Luggage up to 25 by 45 by 70 cm travels free, up to three pieces and 50 kg. A typical checked suitcase is larger than that and needs its own 23 or 25 koruna ticket. Nothing over 50 by 60 by 80 cm may be carried at all.

The exemption is worth knowing. A 24 hour ticket or longer includes one piece of large luggage free. At 140 koruna that is more than the 46 plus 23 you would otherwise pay, but it also covers the rest of your first day.

Buy before you board, and validate

Prague Airport states it plainly. Tickets must be bought before you board the bus. Buy at the Visitor Centre or a DPP machine in arrivals, or in the PID Lítačka app.

A paper ticket must be stamped exactly once, in the yellow validator, immediately when you board the bus or before you go down to the metro platform. App tickets do not need validating.

The fine went up on 1 January 2026. Travelling without a valid or validated ticket costs 1,200 koruna on the spot, 1,500 if you pay within 15 days and 2,000 after that. Unpaid luggage is 200, 400 and 600. Inspectors work the airport lines heavily and wear plain clothes.

The Airport Express still runs, and it doubled in price

It was not discontinued. It runs nonstop, 24 hours, from Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 to Praha hlavní nádraží, the main railway station, stopping on Wilsonova in front of the Fanta Building. The run takes about 40 minutes.

The fare doubled from 100 to 200 koruna on 1 January 2026. Children 6 to 15 and dogs pay 100, under 6s go free, and luggage is included. Ordinary PID tickets and passes are not valid on it. The Prague Visitor Pass is.

From 21 March 2026 the weekday interval was cut to 20 minutes, a night service was added at hourly intervals, and it now stops at Náměstí Republiky at night.

At 200 koruna it is more than four times the 90 minute PID ticket. It is worth it if you are connecting to a train at the main station, or if you have heavy bags and want the luggage space and no changes. Otherwise it is not.

We could not confirm its first and last departure times. DPP publishes them only in timetable PDFs.

Night buses

Two run between 00:15 and 05:00, on the standard PID fare.

Route 907 goes via Smíchov, the main railway station, Masarykovo nádraží and Náměstí Republiky, every 60 minutes. From Náměstí Republiky to the airport takes about 40 minutes.

Route 910 goes via Vyšehrad, Karlovo náměstí, I. P. Pavlova and Strahov, every 30 minutes. From I. P. Pavlova it is about 45 minutes.

907 is the one for the main railway station. 910 is the more frequent. The daytime lines 59 and 100 do not run overnight.

Taxis, and a cap that is not what it looks like

Prague raised its maximum taxi fare on 1 August 2026, the first rise since 2020.

Two warnings about this table.

First, the official pages have not caught up. The city portal and the airport both still display 60, 36 and 7 as of September 2026. Three independent news sources report the new figures as effective 1 August. We could not find the decree’s official number.

Second, and more important, the cap does not cover app rides. Under the 2026 changes to the pricing rules, a municipality may cap only classic metered taxis, where the price comes from a taximeter measuring distance actually travelled. Rides priced in advance in an app, which means Uber and Bolt, sit outside the cap entirely. The 42 koruna a kilometre ceiling is no protection on an app booking.

There is no published fixed airport price to the centre. The airport’s page cites a typical fare of around 800 koruna for about 20 km, but that sits on the same page as the superseded 36 koruna rate. At the new rates the same trip computes to roughly 910. Treat the 800 as dated.

The overcharging problem, with the numbers

Prague Airport’s own guidance is unusually blunt. Do not accept transport offers from people who approach you in the terminals. People wearing Official Taxi branded clothing at the kerb are imposters. The documented risks are inflated fares, illegally modified meters and refusal to issue a receipt. The airport says it cannot guarantee price accuracy when you use an unofficial service.

If you are overcharged, demand a receipt, refuse payment and call the municipal police on 156. Complaints go to taxi at praha dot eu.

City Hall published its 2025 enforcement figures on 31 January 2026. It inspected 1,470 carriers and drivers, found 314 violations, imposed 18 bonds totalling 815,000 koruna and stripped nine drivers of their taxi permits.

The breakdown by segment is instructive. App based, 1,259 checks and 244 violations, about 19 percent. Metered taxi, 162 checks and 35 violations, about 22 percent. Contract based, 49 checks and 35 violations, about 71 percent. One named practice was unauthorised drivers operating under other drivers’ app accounts to farm ratings.

Uber and Bolt

Both are legal. The amendment to the road transport act effective 1 July 2020 removed the taximeter requirement and ended the grey zone. Drivers need a taxi driver’s licence or a trade licence with the vehicle registered with the city, the price must be known in advance in the app, and vehicles carry a yellow identification sticker.

Uber is the airport’s official partner, which is a change from the traditional taxi firms that used to hold the contract. You book through the app, self service kiosks or the service counters, and give the driver a six digit PIN.

Pickup points disagree between sources. Uber’s own Prague page says Terminal 1 goes to car park P1 and Terminal 2 to the departures level at exit D. The airport says Uber picks up directly in front of the arrival halls at both terminals. The app will show you the live point.

Uber adds a 50 koruna airport access surcharge per ride, and 100 if a driver re-enters airport grounds within an hour.

Bolt publishes no fixed pickup point and no fares, and says openly that the best pickup location may change and to check the app.

Neither publishes an airport to centre price, because both are dynamic. The app quotes you a fixed price before you book, and surge applies. We are not going to print a number.

Private transfers

Operator listings cluster around 690 to 970 koruna for a sedan and 1,160 to 1,600 for a van. Those are commercial prices, not regulated ones, and the airport publishes no private transfer price list.

Journey times

The metro is the only leg immune to traffic, which is the practical argument for trolleybus 59 plus metro A over any road only option at peak. Weekday peaks are roughly 7am to 9am inbound and 3pm to 6pm outbound.

No official source publishes quantified rush hour delays for these routes, so we will not give one.

What we could not confirm

Airport Express first and last departure times.

Actual Uber and Bolt fares to the centre.

The official number of the August 2026 price decree, and why the city and airport pages still show the old rates.

Any opening date for the airport rail link.

Quantified rush hour delays.

One note on sourcing. Nearly every travel guide we checked was stale on the 2026 PID and Airport Express fares, quoting 40 koruna for the 90 minute ticket and 100 for the Airport Express. Both were correct until 31 December 2025 and neither is now.

Sources

• DPP, daytime airport services
• DPP, Airport Express
• DPP, night airport services
• PID, 2026 fares
• PID, luggage and dogs
• Prague Airport, public transport
• Prague Airport, taxi
• Prague Airport, unofficial taxi services warning