Gothenburg Airport Buses, Trains and Taxis Compared

Swedavia, the airport operator, puts it plainly: it takes 20 minutes to travel by coach between Landvetter Airport and central Gothenburg. That single sentence, published on the airport's own pages, is the headline fact of every airport transfer decision in this city, and it is also the reason the decision is simpler here than in most cities. There is no train to compare against. No metro, no airport rail link, no commuter line. The comparison in Gothenburg, Sweden is between one airport coach, two public bus routes and a taxi, and this guide sets out what Swedavia, Västtrafik and the operators themselves actually publish about each.

A few ground rules before the detail. Swedavia confirms Landvetter handled 5,435,850 passengers in 2025, making it Sweden's second-largest airport, with 77 international and 2 domestic destinations on a single 3,300 m runway. The airport opened in October 1977, replacing the older Torslanda field closer to the city. And the airport's own transport pages list exactly two public options, coach and bus. Anything else you read about a train connection to Landvetter is wrong, and there are plenty of pages still claiming it. For the fuller arrival picture, including where the coach actually drops you, read our Landvetter airport to the city centre guide.

What Are Your Options for Getting from Landvetter Airport to Gothenburg City Centre?

You have three realistic options: the Vy flygbussarna airport coach, which Swedavia says takes 20 minutes to Göteborg C; Västtrafik bus 612, a local route aimed at the town of Landvetter rather than the city; and a taxi, which is the only door-to-door choice. There is no train to Landvetter and no rail link of any kind, and Swedavia's own pages list only coach and bus. FlixBus line 691 is a fourth, cheaper long-haul alternative running the same corridor.

The airport coach is the default and it has recently been rebranded, which is why older guides look stale. It is now Vy flygbussarna, not plain "Flygbussarna", after the operator Vy took over the brand. The route runs Landvetter Airport, Korsvägen, then Göteborg C at the Nils Ericson Terminal, and Swedavia's own pages state the 20-minute journey time in both directions. Korsvägen is a useful intermediate stop because it sits right by Liseberg and Universeum, so if your hotel is in that part of town you can jump off before the terminal.

Västtrafik bus 612 exists but serves a different purpose than most visitors assume. Swedavia states it runs 14 minutes to Landvetter resecentrum, which is the town of Landvetter, not Gothenburg. It is a route for people with business in the town, and using it to reach the city involves a transfer and no time saving. FlixBus line 691 is the more interesting budget option: Swedavia lists its stops as Landvetter Airport, Landvetter Hotel, Hangarvägen, Korsvägen, Berzeliigatan, Kungsportsplatsen and Göteborg C, and the same operator runs a daily Landvetter to Stockholm Arlanda coach for anyone connecting onward.

One thing this guide will not do is quote a coach fare. The one-way Vy flygbussarna price could not be confirmed against a primary source during research for this page, and a wrong number is worse than an acknowledged gap. The operator's live listing is the place to check the current fare before you travel. The same applies to the distance in kilometres: Swedavia publishes the 20-minute journey time everywhere but states no km figure on the pages reviewed, so we write the minutes and not the miles.

How Much Does the Airport Coach Cost and How Long Does It Really Take?

The Vy flygbussarna coach takes 20 minutes from Landvetter Airport to Göteborg C according to Swedavia, stopping at Korsvägen on the way, and runs from directly outside the terminal. The fare is not published in a form we can verify, so check the operator's live listing before buying. The coach is the only airport option with a dedicated terminal stop at both ends, and it is the one Swedavia itself recommends first.

Twenty minutes is the scheduled time, and it is worth being honest about what that means. The route is a short motorway hop into the city, so the schedule is realistic outside peak traffic, but Gothenburg's rush hours are real and a coach sharing the motorway with commuters can take longer in the mornings and late afternoons. If you have a tight connection, a ferry to catch or a tour departure time, build in buffer rather than trusting the headline figure.

The destination matters too. The Nils Ericson Terminal sits alongside Göteborg Centralstation, which is where the trains, the trams and the long-distance buses all meet. Arriving there puts you within one tram ride of essentially the whole city, and our getting around Gothenburg guide covers what happens next. If you are staying near Korsvägen, Avenyn or Liseberg, the intermediate stop saves you the backtrack.

For travellers who plan to turn the transfer into part of the trip, there is a category of tour that starts from the same logic: you are already moving through the city, so why not see it from the water or the street with a guide. These are the highest-rated city sightseeing options in Gothenburg right now, and the amphibious bus in particular is the one that most reliably surprises people who assumed they had seen everything a bus could do.

If you would rather sort the transfer and the sightseeing separately, that is a perfectly good plan too. The coach gets you to the centre in 20 minutes, and everything below assumes you have arrived.

Is There a Train from Landvetter Airport to Gothenburg?

No. There is no rail link to Landvetter Airport, no station on the site and no planned airport train. Swedavia's own transport pages list only the Vy flygbussarna coach and buses, and the airport's own information confirms coach and road as the public options. Any guide telling you to catch a train to Landvetter is describing an airport in another country or a plan that was never built.

This is worth stating firmly because it is the single most common wrong claim in Gothenburg airport content. Travellers arriving from cities with airport express trains, Copenhagen or Oslo among them, naturally assume Sweden's second city has one too. It does not. The trains that serve the region, including the Göteborg to Stockholm and Göteborg to Oslo lines, all depart from Göteborg Centralstation in the city centre, and reaching them from the airport means the coach first.

There is a rail project in the city, the Västlänken tunnel, but it is not an airport link and it does not help you at Landvetter. Västtrafik's project pages state the first section, underground tracks at Centralen, opens in December 2026, with the full project around 2030 and new stations at Centralen, Haga and Korsvägen. All of that is about city and regional rail capacity, not the airport. If your itinerary depends on trains out of Gothenburg, our Gothenburg to Stockholm by train guide covers booking and times.

The practical consequence is simple: budget for the coach or a taxi in your arrival plan, and if someone offers to sell you an "airport train ticket" for Landvetter, that is not a real product. The comparison that actually matters is coach versus taxi, which is the next section.

How Do Taxis from Landvetter Compare with the Coach?

A taxi is the only door-to-door option from Landvetter, and it is the right call for late arrivals, families with sleeping children, heavy luggage or groups of three to five where splitting the fare beats four coach seats. There is no meter-fixing scandal to warn about, but Swedish taxis are deregulated on price, so the fare is an agreement, not a fixed tariff, and you should confirm the approximate price with the driver before setting off.

Sweden deregulated taxi pricing decades ago, which means each company sets its own fares and there is no official city tariff the way there is in London or New York. Reputable firms display their prices, and the major Gothenburg companies operating from the airport ranks are established businesses, but the habit of confirming the price first is the one piece of advice worth internalising. The ride covers the same corridor as the coach, so the same 20-minute schedule applies in light traffic.

The honest comparison is not about speed, because the coach and a taxi take the same road. It is about the last kilometre. The coach ends at Nils Ericson Terminalen; a taxi ends at your hotel door. In winter, with luggage, at 23:00 after a delayed flight, that difference is worth real money, and only you can price it. For a solo traveller arriving in daylight, it almost never is.

Here is how the confirmed facts stack up across all the options:

What About Arriving in Gothenburg by Long-Distance Train or Ferry Instead?

You can skip Landvetter entirely: Gothenburg is served by Göteborg Centralstation with direct trains to Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen, and by Stena Line ferries from Germany and Denmark into the city centre terminals. Arriving by train or ferry puts you inside the tram network immediately, with no airport transfer to plan at all, which for many itineraries beats flying into Landvetter.

The train option deserves more attention than it gets. Göteborg Centralstation is the hub for the whole west coast, and our Copenhagen to Gothenburg by train and Gothenburg to Oslo by train guides cover the two most useful cross-border routes. If your trip starts in Denmark or the Continent, arriving by rail can be faster door to door than flying once you count the airport transfer at both ends, and it deposits you a two-minute walk from the trams.

The ferry option is a genuinely Gothenburg thing. Stena Line sails into the city from Germany and Denmark, and the terminals sit inside the urban area rather than at some distant port. Our ferry from the UK and Germany guide covers the routes. The practical point for this comparison is that a ferry arrival needs no transfer planning at all, which makes it the one arrival mode where the coach-versus-taxi question simply does not arise.

The arrival modes differ in more than convenience, and the differences are worth seeing side by side:

How Do You Get Around Gothenburg Once the Transfer Is Over?

The tram is the backbone of Gothenburg transport: Göteborgs Spårvägar reports 126 million journeys in 2025 across a network of 12 lines, 134 stops and 188 km of single track as of its 2022 annual report. An adult single in one zone costs 38 kr and a 24-hour Zone A ticket costs 125 kr, and that same Zone A ticket also covers the archipelago ferries from Saltholmen, which is the best-value day out in the city.

The fare structure is zones A, B and C, with Zone A covering Göteborg, Partille, Mölndal and Öckerö. Västtrafik's fare pages confirm the 38 kr single and the 125 kr 24-hour ticket, the latter at the same price whether you buy in the app or at a shop. There is also a 72-hour ticket, but its price could not be verified against a primary source, so we do not print one here. Check Västtrafik's own pages for the current figure.

One discount needs careful handling because it is easy to misread. A temporary state subsidy currently halves every 30-day period ticket, cutting the Zone A adult monthly from 890 kr to 445 kr. But that subsidy does not apply to the 24-hour and 72-hour tickets a visitor actually buys. Anyone telling you "transport in Gothenburg is half price" is conflating a commuter monthly with your day pass. Your 125 kr day ticket costs 125 kr.

The archipelago clause is the fact that changes itineraries. Västtrafik's own zone materials show the southern archipelago boats on the Zone A map, so a single 125 kr day ticket covers the tram to Saltholmen, the ferry out to Styrsö, Brännö, Vrångö, Donsö and the rest, and the tram back. The islands are areas of Gothenburg, not day trips, and Göteborgs Stad's own study confirms they are protected from car traffic. Our Gothenburg archipelago guide covers which island to pick.

Which Gothenburg Airport Transfer Should You Actually Book?

For most travellers the answer is the Vy flygbussarna coach: 20 minutes, terminal-to-centre, confirmed by Swedavia, and cheaper than any taxi. Choose a taxi only for late arrivals, awkward luggage or a group of three or more. Choose FlixBus 691 if the fare difference matters or you are continuing to Arlanda. And skip every page that mentions a train, because there is no train to Landvetter and there never has been.

The decision tree is short enough to fit in a paragraph. Solo or couple, arriving in daylight, hotel near the centre: coach, no debate. Family with children and a 22:00 landing: taxi, split with another family if you can. Staying near Korsvägen or Liseberg: coach, get off at the intermediate stop. Continuing to Stockholm the same night: the FlixBus Arlanda coach is worth checking against the train from Centralstation.

Once you are in the city and the transfer is behind you, the sightseeing options open up, and Gothenburg's best-reviewed ones happen to be on the water that defines the place. The canal cruise is the gentlest introduction, the archipelago cruise gets you out onto the Kattegat, and the amphibious bus does both street and harbour in a single hour.

For the related pick on this page, the amphibious bus is the one we would point a first-time visitor towards, because it doubles as a city tour and a harbour tour on the day you arrive.

And if the weather turns, which in a city with 912 mm of annual rainfall across 127 wet days it sometimes does, the canal cruise runs regardless and the museums are close to its departure point.

For planning beyond the transfer, the season matters more than the mode: SMHI's 1991-2020 normals put October as the wettest month at 102.9 mm and April the driest at 51.3 mm, so the same 20-minute coach ride is a different experience in spring than in autumn. Our best time to visit Gothenburg guide breaks the year down, and how many days you need in Gothenburg helps you size the trip before you book the flight the coach connects to.

For the archipelago option, which pairs naturally with a transfer day if your flight lands early, the guided cruise is the established favourite.

For more on the city itself, start with Gothenburg Travel Guide and the one day in Gothenburg itinerary.

Common Questions About Gothenburg Airport Transfers