Getting from Palermo Airport
Palermo Airport is the gateway for travel to northern Sicily and, as well as car hire, you can use buses and trains for transport.
Car rental
If Palermo Airport will be your starting point for travelling around Sicily, renting a car will be your best option. The terminal is home to many large international and smaller local car rental companies.
Weekly rental prices range between 150 eur and 350 eur depending on the size of the car and the season.
Bus to Palermo
The bus company Prestia e Comande, in collaboration with Terravision, runs from the bus stop in front of the airport terminal "Aeroporto Falcone Borsellino" through the city to the final station at Palermo Stazione F.S.
The bus also stops along the way in the historic centre. A map of all the stops can be found below. Compared to the train, the buses have the advantage of more frequent frequencies, the vehicles are comfortable and air-conditioned, and for the most part they run on the motorway.
Services leave every 30 minutes at half and full from 5:00 to 00:30 in the direction of the airport and from 4:00 to 21:30 from the centre. Depending on the stop, the journey time will take between 25 and 50 minutes.
Tickets can be purchased for 6 eur One-way tickets can be bought online via terravision.eu. You can also use the prestiaecomande.it website, but you have to register and the buying process is a bit more complicated than via terravision.eu.
The return ticket is sold at a discount for 10 eur only through the Prestia e Comande website, while Terravision does not offer a return discount. Tickets can also be bought on the spot from the driver.
- Fares: 6 eur (return for 10 eur)
- Travel time - Palermo Centrale: 50 minutes
- Frequency: 30 minutes
- First bus from the station - 4:00
- Last bus from airport - 1:05
Buy a ticket - Terravision.com
Train to Palermo
There is a train service from Punta Raisi station, just outside the airport terminal, to Palermo Centrale station every half an hour.
The train leaves the airport from 5:15 to 00:25 at irregular intervals twice an hour. It takes 1 hour and 5 minutes to reach the terminus at Palermo Centrale station. On the way it stops at 10 other stops in Palermo. It returns from the centre between 4:00 and 22:11.
The ticket costs 6,50 eur and can be purchased online at trenitalia.com or from a vending machine at the bus stop for the same price.
- Fares: 6,50 eur (return without discount)
- Journey time - Palermo Centrale: 51 - 75 minutes (every second connection is an express train)
- Frequency: 14-48 minutes
- First train from Palermo Centrale - 4:00
- Last train from the airport - 0:25
Taxi
A taxi ride to the centre of Palermo costs 40 eur. To the main station you then pay 45 eur. Prices are fixed.
Buses to Marsala and Mazara del Vallo
Direct services to the western Sicilian resorts of Mazara del Vallo and Marsala are provided approximately once an hour by Salemi buses.
The last bus from the airport leaves at 23:55, the first from Marsala at 3:10, with a journey time of about an hour and a half.
- Ticket price to Marsala: 9,60 eur
- Ticket price to Mazara del Valo: 9,20 eur
- Official website and online ticketing: autoservizisalemi.it
Buses to Trapani Airport
Trapani Airport (TPS), another international airport in Sicily, is served approximately 4 times a day by direct buses operated by Salemi. Unfortunately, the services do not stop anywhere along the way, not even in the town of Trapani.
- Ticket price: 9 eur
- Official website and online ticket purchase: autoservizisalemi.it
Any questions left?
If you have any questions or comments about the article...
You can also buy a return ticket for €10 at the Prestia e Comande booth next to the bus stop at the airport. Just be prepared to answer the question of which bus you will take back. I wasn't expecting the "tricky" question, so the lady issued me an "open ticket", which meant it showed the departure time of the last bus running on the day of my return journey. And it also meant having to (which no one will tell you about...) drop in one day at the Prestia e Comande ticket shop a short walk from Palermo Centrale station (which I didn't mind, I had a few trips by), where they would cancel the "open ticket" and issue a new one for the actual departure time. You can't rely on that "open ticket" to get you on any bus on the day of departure. Those who were waiting for "my" bus to the airport and didn't have a pre-purchased ticket for it didn't go - it was sold out...