Getting from Houari Boumediene Airport to the city

The drop-off is a cliff, not a slope

• The Minute Drop-off at the international flights terminal, on the viaduct, is free for the first 10 minutes. From 10 to 15 minutes the charge is 1,000 dinars.
• There is nothing in between. A stop of eleven minutes and a stop of fifteen cost the same 1,000 DA, and beyond fifteen it is 1,000 DA plus 500 DA for each additional five minutes started. Lost ticket: 2,000 DA.
• SGSIA describes it as a place for a temporary stop rather than parking, open to authorised vehicles, private cars, taxis and buses. Coaches get a longer grace period, 30 minutes free, then 2,000 DA to 40 minutes, then 2,000 DA plus 1,000 DA per further five minutes.

Use the car park instead, and use the right one

• Every car park gives a free first half hour, which is longer than the drop-off allows. Then 100 DA to one hour, 200 DA from one to three hours, and 200 DA plus 100 DA for each additional hour after that.
• In P1 to P5 a day is 2,000 DA, and 2,000 DA again for each further day. In P6 a day is 500 DA. P6 is the long-stay sub-park at the international terminal: 100 DA up to four hours, 200 DA up to eight, 500 DA beyond eight and for 24 hours. For anything over about six hours it is the only sensible choice.
• Lost parking ticket: 2,000 DA, in every car park.

Which park belongs to which terminal

• International flights terminal: park 4, 4,500 spaces across the sub-parks, with reserved bays for reduced mobility. Departures are on the upper level and arrivals on the lower one.
• Domestic and Omra flights terminal: park 1, 2,000 spaces, with bays set aside for taxis and car hire.
• Hadj and charter flights terminal: park 2, 800 spaces.
• SGSIA publishes a live count of free spaces per sub-park, so it is worth checking before you commit to a terminal approach road.

Buses: two lines, 50 dinars, hourly

• ETUSA runs line 100 between the airport and Place des Martyrs and line 178 between the airport and Kharouba bus station. Both charge 50 dinars, and the NAVIGUI season card works on them.
• Departures are hourly. Towards the airport the first is 05:00 and the last 23:00; from the airport the first is 06:00 and the last midnight. Two Algerian outlets published the same table when the service was reorganised and they agree on every figure.
• SGSIA's own transport page names the destinations rather than the line numbers, listing Audin, Place des Martyrs and Kharouba, and says the buses run seven days a week.

The train, and the timetable that does not work

• Algiers airport has a railway station on the suburban line to Agha, calling at El Harrach and Bab Ezzouar. The ticket is 80 dinars and departures are roughly hourly.
• From Agha the first train is 04:40 and the last 21:50. In the airport-bound direction Ouest Tribune gives 05:20 and 22:25, which is a single publisher, so treat the late evening as the part to check.
• The timetable search on the airport's own website does not work. It posts to , and that path returns HTTP 404. The form will sit there and give you nothing. Ask at the station instead.
• SGSIA says you reach all three terminals on foot from the station, following the signs, and the same walk applies from the ETUSA stop.

There is no metro, whatever the page implies

• The airport's transport page lists bus, train, taxi and metro, and under metro it says only that the station "will be finalized soon". There is no metro service to the airport. Do not plan around it.

Taxis: no published fare

• Nobody publishes an airport taxi tariff at Algiers. SGSIA's transport page says only that taxis are available for every city, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Agree the fare before you get in, because there is no official schedule to appeal to.
• The FCDO's advice for Algeria is to have your hotel telephone a reputable firm, not to allow unknown passengers to join you, and to ask the driver to collect you for the return journey, because taxis are not widely available, particularly after dark.