How do you get from Bilbao Airport to the city?

The short answer

Bilbao Airport stands in the municipality of Loiu, about 9 kilometers north of the city, on the other side of the Artxanda hills. There is no train or Metro to it. The simplest way into town is the Bizkaibus airport bus, line A3247, which stops in the city center at the Plaza Elíptica on the Gran Vía and ends at the Intermodal bus station beside San Mamés. It runs every fifteen minutes for most of the year, every twelve in July and August, and the ride to the center takes about a quarter of an hour.

The arching roof of the passenger terminal at Bilbao AirportMichael Sender, Wikimedia Commons, GFDL 1.2

Taxis wait outside the terminal and are the easiest choice with heavy luggage or for a hotel on a hill. If Bilbao is only your gateway, direct coaches leave the airport for San Sebastián and Vitoria-Gasteiz without going into the city at all.

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It does not affect what is recommended here, and no sight page on this site carries one.

A transfer booked ahead, and somewhere to leave bags before check-in.

The airport

Bilbao Airport is the largest in the Basque Country and in northern Spain, with more than six million passengers a year. Its main terminal, opened in 2000, was designed by Santiago Calatrava, the architect of the city's Zubizuri footbridge. Its two symmetrical wings and the sharp point at its center earned it the nickname La Paloma, the Dove.

For years passengers complained that the terminal had no proper arrivals hall: once they cleared customs they stepped straight outside into the weather, which in Bilbao often means rain. The airport added a glass-walled shelter to solve the problem, and that is where you wait for the bus and the taxis. Have a light waterproof handy when you land; you may need it within a minute of leaving the plane.

The tracks running into Abando station, the city on the hills behindIbai1984, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The first commercial flight left Bilbao's airport in 1948. The Calatrava terminal was designed for about four and a half million passengers a year and was close to that limit by 2007, before the recession cut traffic; numbers recovered over the following decade. A plan announced in 2009 to enlarge the terminal and double its capacity was postponed in 2010 because of spending cuts.

By the airport bus

The Bizkaibus airport line connects the terminal with the city center and the city bus station. Its central stop is the Plaza Elíptica, the oval square in the middle of the Gran Vía, which was called the Plaza Moyúa until July 2026, so older maps and guides still use that name. The Moyúa Metro station is beneath the square, so you can change straight onto lines 1 and 2.

The bus continues to Bilbao Intermodal, the main bus station, rebuilt underground beside San Mamés stadium and reopened in 2019. There you can change to the Metro, the tram along the river, the commuter trains and long-distance coaches. You can pay with the Barik card, the rechargeable card that works on almost all public transport in Biscay; fares change, so check them on Bizkaibus's own site.

Which stop for which area

The red-clad entrance of the Bilbao Intermodal bus stationJosi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

If you are staying in the Ensanche or Indautxu, get off at the Plaza Elíptica and walk, or take the Metro one or two stops. For the riverfront and the Guggenheim, the Plaza Elíptica is also the nearest stop, a short walk down to the river. For the Casco Viejo, change at the Plaza Elíptica onto the Metro for Zazpikaleak / Casco Viejo station, or stay on to the Intermodal and take the tram along the river to the old town.

If your hotel is near San Mamés or you are catching a coach or train onward, stay on to the end at the Intermodal. The where to stay page shows where each area lies.

By taxi

Taxis are the quickest door-to-door choice, especially late at night, with a lot of luggage, or for a hotel up a slope in Begoña or Indautxu. The journey over or around the Artxanda hills into the city is short. The fare is metered; ask for an estimate at the rank if you want one, and check whether airport supplements apply.

Fishing boats tied up in the harbor at SanturtziMikel Mentxaka (Tagzania user ID: 23357), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

For a group of three or four, a taxi can be reasonable compared with several bus tickets, and it saves the walk from the bus stop.

Straight on to the coast or Vitoria

If you are heading elsewhere in the Basque Country, you need not go into Bilbao at all. Lurraldebus runs a direct coach to San Sebastián, stopping only at Zarautz, every hour for most of the year and every half hour in summer, and Autobuses La Unión runs to Vitoria-Gasteiz, via the Vitoria bus station and airport and Bolueta Metro station in Bilbao, every one or two hours depending on the season.

There is also a Bizkaibus line from the airport to the Plaza San José in the center and on to Larrabetzu, roughly hourly. The day trips page describes the places these lines reach.

What about a train or the Metro?

The airy arrivals hall under the white roof of Bilbao AirportHugh Llewelyn from Keynsham, UK, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

There is no rail link to the airport. A project to extend Metro line 3 to the terminal exists, but it has no official timetable, so for now every public route into the city is by road. A new bus line from the airport to Ansio Metro station in Barakaldo, crossing the Rontegi bridge, is planned from 2029.

If you are driving, car hire desks are in the terminal, and the city is reached by motorway in a few minutes. In the center, though, a car is more trouble than help; the getting around page explains why.

Leaving Bilbao

The same bus runs the other way, from the Intermodal and the Plaza Elíptica to the terminal, so the return journey is just as simple. Leave a margin for traffic on the way out of the city, especially at rush hour and on Friday afternoons, and follow your airline's advice on how early to reach the terminal before departure. If you have an early flight, a taxi booked the night before is the surest choice.

Arriving another way

The ceramic arch over the door of Concordia station, lettered F.C. de Santander a BilbaoArdfern, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Not every visitor flies into Bilbao. Long-distance trains arrive at Abando in the center, coaches at the Intermodal, and ferries from Portsmouth and Rosslare at the outer port at Santurtzi, connected to the center by the C-1 commuter train. The getting here page covers each of them.

How do you get from Bilbao Airport to the city?