How to Get From Prague Airport to the City Center

The cheapest route from Prague Airport to the centre is trolleybus 59 to Nadrazi Veleslavin and then metro line A, on a single ticket that covers both. It takes 35 to 50 minutes depending on your stop. The Airport Express bus goes directly to the main train station for a higher fare, and a taxi or ride hailing app costs considerably more.

There is no metro or train line to the airport, which surprises people arriving from cities that have one. Every option is a bus of some kind or a car.

The Detail Most Guides Get Wrong

One thing about this journey changed recently and almost nothing published online reflects it, which makes it worth stating before anything else.

Bus 119 no longer exists. It was replaced by trolleybus route 59 in March 2024, running the same route to the same place. Signage, apps and departure boards all say 59, so a visitor scanning for 119 will stand at the stop while the right vehicle leaves.

A great many guides published since then still say 119, which is worth knowing because it is the single most repeated piece of outdated advice about this airport. The route, the journey time and the fare are unchanged.

The Public Transport Route in Detail

Trolleybus 59 leaves from outside both terminals every few minutes and reaches Nadrazi Veleslavin in about fifteen minutes. That station is on metro line A, the green line, which runs directly to the stops most visitors want in the Old Town and around the castle.

One ticket covers the whole journey including the transfer. Buy a 90 minute ticket rather than a 30 minute one, since the shorter one expires before you arrive at almost any central stop. Bus 100 does the same job to a different metro line and is the better choice only if you are staying near line B, the yellow one, which runs through the western half of the city.

After midnight a night bus replaces the trolleybus and the metro stops running, so a very late arrival is a different journey with a longer walk at the end of it.

The Airport Express and When It Makes Sense

This is a genuinely useful service for a narrow group of people and a waste of money for everyone else, so it is worth knowing which one you are.

The Airport Express is operated by the national railway and runs directly to Hlavni nadrazi, Prague’s main train station, with one intermediate stop. It costs more than the ordinary public transport ticket and is bought separately.

Departures run at a fixed interval rather than continuously, which is worth checking against your arrival time.

It is worth it in exactly one situation, which is when you are connecting onward by train the same day and want to arrive at the platform rather than at a metro station. For anyone heading to a hotel in the centre it is slower and dearer than the trolleybus and metro, because the main station is not where most visitors are staying.

Taxis, Apps and Avoiding the Standard Problem

Prague’s airport taxi reputation is largely historical now, but the habits that protect you are worth keeping anyway.

Ride hailing apps operate in Prague and are usually cheaper than a metered taxi, with designated pickup points at the terminals. They also remove the language and payment friction, which is one of the things worth having set up before you land.

Use the official taxi rank outside arrivals or a ride hailing app booked in advance. Prague has a long standing reputation for airport taxi overcharging, and while the regulated ranks are much better than they were, anyone approaching you inside the terminal offering a ride is not to be used.

Fares are regulated and metered, and the journey to the centre is short enough that the total is reasonable by European standards.

A car makes sense with heavy luggage, a very early flight or a family group, and the fare split three or four ways is competitive with individual public transport tickets. Otherwise the bus and metro combination is faster than people expect for the money, and it is one of the better value airport transfers in Europe.

Practical Notes for Arrival Day

A little planning saves the usual arrival day friction, and none of it takes long.

Terminal 1 handles non-Schengen flights and Terminal 2 handles flights within the Schengen area, and both are served by the same stops. If you arrive from outside the Schengen area you will pass through immigration, and the EU’s Entry/Exit system now registers non-EU travellers biometrically on first entry, which has lengthened queues at several European airports.

The Czech Republic uses the Czech crown rather than the euro, so buy your ticket with a card at the machine rather than exchanging cash at the airport, where rates are poor. Anyone connecting through another hub should also check the transfer guidance that large airports publish, and airlines serving Prague set out their own baggage rules separately. Getting the transfer right is the sort of small preparation that starts a trip well rather than badly.

Fares, route numbers and timetables change. Check the current Prague public transport information and your airline before you travel.

The Bigger Picture

Prague is a useful reminder that airport transfer advice ages badly and that route numbers change without anyone updating the articles that mention them. The general shape of the answer, a cheap bus to a metro interchange on one ticket, has been stable for years. The specific number on the front of the vehicle has not. Checking the airport’s own current information before you fly takes two minutes and is worth more than any guide, including this one.