Your guide to traveling between Melbourne Airport and the CBD

Whether you’re just visiting Melbourne or catching a regular plane from the Victorian capital, there are plenty of choices for trips to and from the airport.

Convenience will be a factor for many – especially when carrying one or three suitcases – while cost is another: and a factor that can affect your choices when traveling in a larger group, compared to a solo traveler.

Here’s what you need to know about the zipper between Melbourne Airport and the CBD, including the price of each transfer.

Melbourne Airport SkyBus

One of the most popular ways to travel between Melbourne Airport and the CBD is the SkyBus.

As the name suggests, this is the main Melbourne Airport bus, with the Melbourne City Express service running nonstop between Tullamarine and the CBD at Southern Cross Station.

For most travelers, one-way tickets cost $ 15 while a the return ticket is $ 28.

Seniors get a discount of $ 1.50 one way (either $ 13.50 one way or $ 25 round trip), while children travel for $ 2 one way and $ 4 round trip . All tickets can be purchased online or in person.

While SkyBus offers a good balance of cost and convenience for solo travelers, this is less true when traveling with a companion or in a larger group, where the cost of three adult SkyBus fares is comparable to the price of a taxi. or carpooling.

The company previously offered SkyBus Link – a free shuttle service between hotels in the city and Southern Cross Station – but this has been suspended since March 2020.

Other SkyBus routes to Melbourne also remain on hold, including the Southbank Docklands Express, St Kilda Express, Peninsula Express, Eastern Express and Western Express.

Private car services from Melbourne airport

For a comfortable trip from one point to another with your luggage in tow, private car rental services are more expensive, but offer the shortest travel times between the airport terminal and the hotel: private individual with a driver ready and waiting for your arrival.

Companies like Hughes – which normally provide free truck driver services to qualifying Emirates passengers – accept online bookings at fixed rates.

When we got quotes online, Hughes priced an executive sedan at around $ 121 one-way, while Premium sedans were around $ 148 and movers at $ 159, including compulsory levies. government not displayed in the prices displayed for the first time through the online system.

Melbourne airport taxis

Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport is home to Victoria’s busiest taxi rank, which means lines can be long at times, but usually move quickly.

As part of your tariff, you will pay a Melbourne Airport Taxi Supplement of $ 4.50, hailing a taxi from the row.

If you’ve pre-booked a cab, you’ll pay $ 4.50 if your driver waits less than 30 minutes (or $ 4, if he’s only waiting 15 minutes or less) – but the fees go up sharply afterwards: $ 24 for an hour, for example, and that’s on top of your cab fare.

To avoid queues in the ranks, consolidated taxi booking apps like Placie offer live fare estimates on several taxi services.

Thanks to Placie, you can also book and pay for your taxi, with the tax bill going to your inbox. In addition, new users can get a $ 20 discount on the first trip paid through the app, when register here.

That reduction goes quite far for a taxi fare between Melbourne Airport and the CBD, which Placie recently estimated at $ 56 for Black & White, $ 58.90 for Silver Top and $ 68.21 for 13Cabs.

Carpool at Melbourne Airport

Ordering a carpooling vehicle is easy at Melbourne Airport – and you’ll find the public pick-up area by crossing the first road directly past the terminals, after baggage claim.

Prices may vary between ridesharing apps, with discounts available for first-time users.

Uber recently quoted us $ 47.88 for an UberX one-way ticket to Parliament Square, $ 54.37 for Comfort, $ 69.41 for UberXL and $ 75.15 for Premier (formerly Uber Black). If this is your first time using Uber, enter the promo code UberAU10 when you sign up to save $ 10 on that first ride.

Ola instead provides an estimated fare range for each trip, with the same trip going between $ 44 and $ 50 for a Prime sedan (tied with UberX) and between $ 63 and $ 71 for a Prime SUV.

If you are a new customer, enter the Ola promo code B666GMU to save $ 10 on your first trip – and don’t forget to link your Velocity Frequent Flyer number as well, to earn up to four Velocity Points per $ 1 spent on airport trips.

Have I got presents itself as low-cost carpooling, with an entry-level Didi Express ride listed for us at $ 45.79 – a little cheaper than UberX, for the same type of service – and $ 61.49 for Didi Max, where the economy compared to UberXL for a seven-seat tour is more noticeable.

Discount offers appear regularly in the Didi app for existing users, which can further reduce these costs, but if you are a first-time Didi pilot, save $ 10 on your first trip entering the Didi Chris discount code10351 in the Promotions tab of the app before ordering a car.

(When you use any of the codes above, we’ll also get a $ 10 discount on our next ride, so it’s a win-win.)

Melbourne Airport Car Hire

As you would expect, the major rental car brands are present at Melbourne Airport, allowing travelers to collect and drop off vehicles at the terminal.

This comes with the added convenience of not needing to arrange a separate airport transfer, but which can be offset by the increased rental price at the airport – through “premium location surcharges.” “and others – in relation to collecting or returning a car elsewhere. .

Especially for longer rentals, it is beneficial to get multiple quotes and compare the rental cost from different locations.

You could very well save a significant amount of money by renting in the city or the suburbs, even taking into account the additional cost of a taxi or a carpooling between there and the airport, compared to the high price of a catch. in charge at the airport.

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Public transport to Melbourne Airport

Are you traveling on a tight budget? You can get between Melbourne Airport and the CBD for just $ 4.50 – but it does require a bit of walking and a lot of patience, with an average trip of 1.5 hours (compared to 30-45 minutes on SkyBus ).

Start by taking the 901 bus near Terminal 4 – rightly the terminal serving the most cost-conscious travelers – until you reach Broadmeadows Station.

Then, board a train to town along the Craigieburn Line.

A Myki card is required, the two hour adult rate is $ 4.50 or $ 2.25 for concession card holders.

If you don’t have a Myki card, there is an ATM in the arrivals hall of Terminal 4 – or you may be able to sign up for a Myki mobile through some Android phones.

(Personally, we recommend that you stick with a standard Myki card unless you know that Mobile Myki is working for you – which was not the case on our last attempt, where the digital card was not accessible. to any banknote reader, even with NFC correctly activated.)

Pick-up by your friends and family from Melbourne Airport

Along with your independent transfer options, passengers picked up at Melbourne Airport by friends and family can wait in one of two areas.

For a quick ‘jump and ride’, the one-minute pickup route is best – just follow the signs for ‘public pickup’.

Some prefer to have a little more time to get in the vehicle – or not to do the airport loops – in which case the separate 10-minute parking lot is a winner. Drivers and passengers, follow the signs “Pick up 10 minutes”.

It is best to confirm with your elevator where you plan to wait before pickup, to keep things easy, and that the driver will not be charged for parking, if they exceed 10 minutes in this area. dedicated support.

Does Melbourne have a train to the airport?

At the time of publication, Melbourne Tullamarine Airport does not not have its own train service.

At this time, connections to the city’s rail network are possible by taking the SkyBus to Southern Cross Station, or the 901 bus to Broadmeadows Station, where you can board a ferry service. train.

In the future, however, Melbourne Airport will be directly connected to the train line.

Construction on the Melbourne Airport Rail project is expected to begin in 2022, with a target opening date of 2029.

Via the tube tunnel on the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines, the Melbourne Airport train will start at Tullamarine and stop at Sunshine, Footscray, Arden, Parkville, State Library, Town Hall, Anzac, Caulfield, Clayton, Dandenong, then Cranbourne or Pakenham.

Services are scheduled every 10 minutes, with a journey time between Melbourne Airport and the CBD of around 30 minutes.

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Chris Chamberlin is Associate Editor of Executive Traveler and lives by the motto that a journey of a thousand miles does not start with just one step, but also with a strong latte, a ticket to the theater, and later in the day, a good gin and tonic.