Belfast International Airport to City Centre 2026 — All Transfer Options

Disclaimer: All prices, schedules and service details in this article reflect information available in June 2026. Transport fares and timetables change regularly — always verify the latest information on the official websites of each provider before you travel. The author and Faretus accept no liability for any inaccuracies, changes, or decisions made based on this content.

Before anything else: Belfast has two airports, and the confusion between them is the first thing to sort out before you read another line of this guide.

Belfast International Airport (BFS) — also called Aldergrove — sits 32 kilometres northwest of the city centre in County Antrim. This is where most transatlantic flights arrive, along with Ryanair, Jet2, and many European charter routes. It is the larger of the two airports.

Belfast City Airport (BHD) — officially George Best Belfast City Airport — sits 9 kilometres east of the city, essentially in the suburbs. It handles mostly UK domestic routes and some European services.

This article is about Belfast International (BFS). If you landed at a small airport right next to the water with views of the harbour, you're at BHD and the distances in this article are wrong for you. George Best is much closer to everything and most people simply take a taxi or the short bus ride.

For BFS travellers: you're 32 kilometres out, and the options below are what you've got.

The quick comparison

Option	Price (one-way)	Time to centre	Hours	Best for
Airport Express 300	£9.50	30–40 min	~06:00–23:30	Most travellers
Service 600 bus	£6.50	60–75 min	Daytime only	Budget, no rush
Official taxi	£30–35	25–35 min	24 hours	Groups, night arrivals
Private transfer	from £35	25–35 min	Pre-booked	Families, business travel

⚠️ There is no train from Belfast International Airport. Unlike Belfast City Airport, which has Sydenham station a short walk away, BFS has no rail connection whatsoever. All public transport options from Belfast International are road-based.

Option 1 — Airport Express 300: the right choice for most people

The Airport Express 300 is Translink's dedicated coach service between Belfast International and the city centre. It is comfortable, reliable, and the default sensible option for solo travellers and pairs.

A single ticket costs £9.50 for adults. A return ticket is £13.50 and is valid for one month — worth buying immediately if you're flying home from BFS. Children under 16 travel at a reduced fare; under-5s go free. You can buy tickets from the driver (cash or contactless), from the vending machine at the bus stop right outside the terminal, or slightly cheaper via the Translink mLink app — worth downloading before you land if you want to avoid fumbling around on arrival.

The 300 runs approximately every 10–30 minutes during peak hours and every 30–60 minutes in the evenings and on Sundays. Journey time is 30–40 minutes in normal traffic, though Belfast's westbound approach can slow during weekday rush hours.

The service terminates at Belfast Grand Central Station — the city's main transport hub, opened in 2024, which consolidates bus and rail connections to Dublin, Derry/Londonderry, and regional Northern Ireland destinations all under one roof. If you're continuing anywhere by rail or bus, this is exactly where you want to be dropped.

Key stops along the route include Antrim Road, York Street, and Donegall Square — useful depending on where your accommodation is in the city.

The honest take: £9.50 is not cheap for a bus ride, but it's a proper coach service, not a city bus, and it gets the job done reliably. For one person, it's the best balance of cost and convenience. For two people, it's worth doing the taxi maths — see below.

Option 2 — Service 600: the slow cheap option

Translink Service 600 is a regular city bus that also serves the airport, taking a longer route through Templepatrick and Antrim before reaching Belfast. A single fare is around £6.50 — meaningfully cheaper than the 300 — but the journey takes 60–75 minutes and runs less frequently, typically every 30–60 minutes during daytime hours.

The 600 is a standard public bus. It doesn't have luggage racks, it fills up with local commuters, and it's not designed for airport travellers with bags. The route also passes through residential areas, which adds time and stops.

The honest take: If you've just had a long flight and you have luggage, the 600 will test your patience. The £3 saving over the Express 300 isn't worth an extra 30–40 minutes and the luggage juggling. The 600 makes sense only if you're travelling very light and genuinely not in a rush — or if you happen to be staying somewhere along the route that the 600 passes through.

Option 3 — Taxi: regulated, metered, and worth it for groups

Belfast taxis operate on a metered fare system — there is no fixed airport tariff for BFS. The typical metered fare from Belfast International to the city centre runs £30–35 in normal conditions, rising slightly during peak hours and at night. Taxis at Belfast International are licensed by the Department for Infrastructure — they operate under regulated pricing and are generally reliable.

The taxi rank is located directly outside the arrivals exit. During busy periods there can be a queue, but it moves quickly. Do not accept offers from drivers inside the terminal building — take the official rank.

There is no significant Uber or Bolt presence at Belfast International. The local taxi app alternative is Splyt or booking directly with established Belfast taxi firms such as Value Cabs or fOnaCAB — both allow app or phone booking and are widely used by locals.

The honest take: For one person, £32 versus £9.50 on the Express 300 is a meaningful gap. For two people, £16 each starts to look reasonable compared to £9.50 each, especially at night or with luggage. For three or four people, the taxi is the clear winner on price and drops you door-to-door. Do the maths before you default to the bus.

Option 4 — Private transfer: certainty at a fixed price

Pre-booked private transfers meet you in arrivals, track your flight for delays, and take you to your destination at a confirmed rate. Saloon cars to central Belfast typically start at £35–45 depending on provider and booking lead time.

For the 32-kilometre distance from BFS, the logistics of a private transfer make reasonable sense — you're not paying a premium for a 5-kilometre trip where a taxi would be just as easy. With luggage, children, or a business meeting to get to, the certainty of a named driver in arrivals is genuinely useful.

The honest take: At £40 for a group of three or four, a private transfer costs about the same per head as a taxi and less than multiple bus tickets combined — while offering door-to-door service and no uncertainty. Worth considering for family or group travel.

Which option is right for you?

Solo traveller, daytime arrival → Airport Express 300. £9.50, 30–40 minutes, Grand Central Station, done.
Arriving after 23:30 → Taxi or pre-booked transfer. The Express 300 doesn't run through the night.
Two people travelling together → Check the taxi fare. At £30–35 split two ways, it's £15–17 each — more than the bus but door-to-door with luggage. Reasonable trade-off.
Three or four people → Taxi or private transfer, clearly. The per-head cost beats bus tickets and you arrive together at your actual destination.
Very tight budget, not in a rush → Service 600. £6.50, but allow 75 minutes and travel light.
Connecting to Dublin by rail → Express 300 to Grand Central Station and pick up a cross-border Enterprise train from there. Belfast to Dublin Connolly is around 2 hours 15 minutes.
Family with kids and luggage → Pre-booked private transfer. Easiest on everyone.

Things people get wrong at Belfast International

Confusing BFS and BHD. This is by far the most common mistake in every Belfast travel forum. If you think you're going to a small airport close to the waterfront and end up at a large terminal in County Antrim (or vice versa), you've booked for the wrong airport. Always check which Belfast airport your airline uses — they are 35 kilometres apart.

Expecting a train. Belfast International has no rail connection. This surprises visitors who come from cities where airport trains are standard. The Express 300 is the closest equivalent and it's a good service, but it is a bus.

Not downloading mLink before arrival. Translink's mLink app gives you slightly cheaper fares and lets you pay contactlessly without needing the right change. Download it before you land — it saves a small but real amount of faff at the vending machine.

Underestimating traffic into Belfast. The M2 motorway approach to Belfast can slow significantly during weekday rush hours (07:30–09:00 and 16:30–18:30). If your arrival is during those windows and you have a train to catch at Grand Central, add buffer time to your estimate.

Overlooking the return ticket. If you're flying home from BFS, the Express 300 return at £13.50 saves you £5.50 versus two singles at £9.50 each. It's valid for a month. Buy it when you arrive.

A note on currency

Belfast is in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. The currency is pound sterling (£), not euros. All prices in this article are in pounds. Card payment is widely accepted everywhere — on the Express 300, at the taxi rank, and at the terminal itself — so you don't need to have cash ready, but it's worth knowing you're not in the Republic of Ireland the moment you land.

Final thought

Belfast International is a straightforward airport once you've established which one it is. The Express 300 gets most people where they need to go without drama — it's well run, easy to find, and ends up at a transport hub that puts the rest of Northern Ireland within easy reach.

Belfast itself is a compact, walkable city with a lot going on — the Titanic Quarter, the Cathedral Quarter, the Black Taxi tours of the murals, the food scene that's emerged over the past decade. Getting there from the airport isn't the hard part. Finding a reason to leave is.

And if the cheap flight into Belfast is still the missing piece, check the Faretus deals page. BFS is served by a solid range of Ryanair and Jet2 routes from across Europe.

All information in this article is based on publicly available data from official transport providers as of June 2026. Prices, schedules and service arrangements may change without notice. Always verify directly with the relevant provider — Translink (translink.co.uk) — before travelling. The author and Faretus bear no responsibility for any decisions made based on the content of this article.