Airport
Those who travel to Madrid by plane will land at the Madrid Barajas airport, which is about 12 km northeast of the city centre. Barajas is one of three airports of the Spanish capital, the other two airports are scarcely used for scheduled flights though. Cuatro Vientos is open for general aviation, but is also used by the military and Torrejón is a former American Air Base, which is barely utilized due to the existing capacity of Barajas. In 2005, a new and modern terminal (T4) was opened and is connected to the satellite terminal T4S with its own metro due to the distance from the old airport ground. The connections to public transport are excellent from both areas. Both T1 - T3 and T4 have a connection to the metro (line 8). Those who don't want to take the metro can either take a taxi or to take the bus.
For the metro, a supplement charge of 1€ on top of the regular ticket is payable should you not have a monthly ticket (Abono) or a tourist ticket. For a taxi ride there is also an airport supplement payable. The taxi ride to Puerta del Sol costs about 20-25 €. Please note that a further surcharge is payable at night.
Madrid Barajas is utilized not only by the major UK airlines, but also the budget no-frills airlines. British Airways (www.britishairways.com), Iberia (www.iberia.com), Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.com) and KLM (www.klm.com) all offer flights to the Spanish capital from the popular major United Kingdom airports. Other airlines also operate routes from Ireland. Some of these are Air France (www.airfrance.com) and Swiss (www.swiss.com) as well as the no-frills airlines like Easyjet (www.easyjet.com), Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) and Ryanair (www.ryanair.com).
From the airport (T1 - T3 and T4) the ride with the metro is the cheapest and the most convenient. In the metro stations at the airport you can buy a ten-ticket (MetroBus or Diez Viajes) for 9.30 €. This ticket can be shared with other passengers, but remember that each fellow traveller still has to pay their airport supplement fee (1 €).
From the airport, the journey takes approximately 30-40 minutes to the inner city (Note: In the Nuevos Ministerios station you have to change the subway line - line 6 or 10). It will be a little faster by bus though, the airport line 200 (it costs 1 € or use the MetroBus ticket) goes to Avenida de América, where you can then change to the metro.
Aéroport Barajas
12 km northeast from the centre of Madrid
(+34) 913 211 000
Connections Madrid Airport
Bus - Line 200 Crossing Avenida de la América, Terminal 1 - 4, daily 6 am - 10.30 pm, 1€ Metro - Line 8 Phone 010, daily 6 am -1.30 am, 1€ + supplement Taxi