OUR GUIDE TO GETTING AROUND AND GETTING TO BARCELONA
Barcelona International Airport (IATA: BCN, ICAO: LEBL), also known as El Prat, is a major transport hub and fields flights from all over Europe and beyond. There are three terminals, A, B and C, all within fairly easy walking distance of each other. Terminal A is the main new terminal and is used by almost all of the airlines. Terminal B, the former old airport is now used almost exclusively as a base by Ryanair.
The airport is only about 10 km away from the city center. Taxis are supposed to use a zone chart for trips into the city, but rarely do, and you can expect to pay up to €25.
A cheaper and often faster option is the half-hourly RENFE suburban train calling at Sants (20 minutes), Passeig de Gràcia (25 minutes) and Estació de França (30 minutes) in the city centre. A single ticket is about €2.20, but an under-advertised fact is that you can use the T-10 ticket (€6.90 for ten trips, including all bus and metro transfers made within 75 minutes) instead. You can buy a T-10 from the ticket vending machine at the airport station.
Alternatively, the Aerobús A1 line stops outside all terminal buildings and travels along Gran Via to Plaça Catalunya. Buses depart every 6-9 minutes, the published journey time is 35 minutes (although can take considerably longer during rush hour) and costs €3.90 one-way. Aerobuses stop running at midnight, but you can catch a Nit Bus night bus service instead.
OTHER AIRPORTS
Girona Airport
Some low-cost carriers, notably Ryanair, use the airports in Girona, nearly 100km to the north, or Reus, around the same distance to the south, instead. The Barcelona Bus service runs a shuttle bus from Estació del Nord in Barcelona to Girona Airport and this ties in with various flight times. A one-way ticket costs €12 and a return ticket costs €21. The journey takes approximately one hour and ten minutes.
Reus Airport
For Reus airport, the easiest way is to take the train from Barcelona Sants station to Reus and then the local bus to the airport. The train costs €6.45 and then the bus costs €2. This takes roughly an hour and a half.