Getting from Brasilia International Airport to the city

The line you probably want

• Line 102 connects the airport with the Rodoviaria, the central bus station in the middle of the Plano Piloto, where you can change onto the metro. The fare is 3.80 reais.
• Line 102.1 runs the same corridor by way of HOSFAB, also 3.80.
• That is the standard journey: airport to Rodoviaria, then walk or take the metro to wherever you are staying.

Every other fare band

• 3.80 reais also covers line 11 (Asa Norte superblocks via the Esplanada on L2 Norte and the Eixao Sul), line 30 (Asa Norte via W3 Norte and Sul), 73.1 (Candangolandia and Lago Sul), 73.2 (a circular via Park Way station and QI 15) and 181.4 from Sao Sebastiao.
• 2.70 reais buys lines 102.6 and 102.7, the circular services to the Asa Sul terminal. Cheapest fare at the airport.
• 5.50 reais is the outer-city band: 129, 129.1, 274, 770, 822, 834, 835, 877, 200.5, 201.5, 254.1, 384.1, 386.1 and 389.1, from Samambaia, Recanto das Emas, Gama, Guara, Santa Maria, Nucleo Bandeirante and Ceilandia.
• 8.85 reais is the semi-urban band from the Entorno, the towns in Goias state outside the Federal District: lines 6078, 4094 and 4321. These run a handful of times a day, mostly early morning out and late afternoon back.

What is not running

• The executive airport bus is suspended with no announced date for its return.
• That leaves the ordinary city bus, a taxi, or a ride-hailing car picked up at the Praca Pick-up, the marked meeting area with lettered and numbered bays.

Reading the small print

• The bus network is run by the Federal District government, not by the airport. The airport reproduces what the Secretaria de Mobilidade gives it and says it can change.
• Check the fare on the day. Four bands at one airport is unusual, and which one applies depends on where the line starts, not on how far you ride.

Where you have landed

• Brasilia was built from nothing in the late 1950s and the whole Plano Piloto is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The address system of superblocks and sector codes is the thing that confuses every first-time visitor.
• The airport is about 11 km south of the centre, inside the Federal District.
• Distances here are enormous and pedestrian routes are an afterthought. This is a city designed for cars, and the bus is a genuine saving rather than a convenience.