Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas International Airport, or often called Madrid-Barajas Airport, is the main international airport serving Madrid, the capital of Spain. With well over 50 million passengers a year it is one of Europe's busiest airports and a major link in the air traffic between Europe and Latin America. The route Madrid to Barcelona is the busiest European route with over 55 daily flights.
Madrid Barajas Airport was openend in 1927 but remained nothing more than a grass field with a small terminal until after the Second World War. The growth of tourism to Spain and the 1982 Fifa World Cup boosted passenger numbers and caused an immense expansion of the airport.
Most flights from Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport are to Barcelona and to London but there are many more flights to other destinations as well, most of them by Iberia Airlines. Every day there are flights to 20 destinations from Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport. Here are the most popular destinations:
Recently (2004) two new runways and a new terminal were completed so that Madrid-Barajas Airport now has four runways and 4 terminals. The newest, Terminal 4 is one of the world's largest airport terminals and is used by Iberia and its Oneworld partner airlines. Terminal 1, 2 and 3 are built next to each other and house the other airlines and airline alliances such as SkyTeam and Star Alliance.
The airport is located inside the city district, just 13 km northeast of Madrids historic center and 9 km from Madrid CBD.
The Madrid Barajas Airport provides several transport option to get to Madrid city center.
Metro: The Madrid Metro has a station at Terminal 2 and 4 for Line 8 but you would need to change metros twice to get into the city center (one-way fare 5 euro). If your destination is not in the center the metro would be your best choice.
Bus: The best way to get to Madrid city center is by the 24 hours express bus. This bus picks up passengers at all terminals and goes strait to O'Donell and Cibeles metro stations, and Atocha (the main train station). The bus departs every 12 minutes in the day and half hour at night, one-way ticket is 5 euros which can be bought from the driver.
Public bus 200 is a cheaper option, but takes more time. One-way fare to Avenida de America bus station is 1.50 euro.
See for tickets and schedule: buses: emtmadrid.es .
Taxis into the city would cost around 35 euro but can be bit cheaper if you pre-book it.
All prices quoted here were found in June 2017
