Getting from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to the city

What changed, and when

• Terminal 1 served Baiyun for nearly 22 years and stopped on 7 May 2026. All 11 airlines still based there, including Air China, Shenzhen Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Kunming Airlines, Xizang Airlines, Capital Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, West Air, Urumqi Air and Lucky Air, moved to Terminal 3 at 02:00 that morning.
• The move had already been postponed once. An earlier plan to empty T1 in January 2026 was pulled back because of the Spring Festival travel rush; only international flights moved then.
• The rail stations went with it. From 7 May the "Airport South (T1 Terminal)" metro station and the "Baiyun Airport South Station (T1)" intercity rail station both became non-stopping stations.
• T1's car parks P1 to P4 closed at the same time.
• This is why old advice is dangerous here. Guides that tell you to ride metro line 3 to the airport terminus are describing a station your train now passes through without opening its doors.

Getting to Terminal 3

• T3 opened on 30 October 2025 and is where most flights now go.
• It has no metro station. It has an intercity rail station, Baiyun Airport East, on level B2 of the transport centre, connecting Guangzhou with Foshan, Dongguan and Zhaoqing.
• Route one: metro line 3 or 9 to Gaozeng Station, then the free T3 shuttle bus. About 6 km, 15 minutes, every 15 to 20 minutes.
• Route two: metro to Baiyun Airport North Station (T2), then one stop on the intercity train to Baiyun Airport East (T3).
• Airport Express long-distance coaches all call at T3 as well, since 30 October 2025.
• By road it is the Airport Second Expressway or Yingbin Avenue, with parking at P11 and P12 south of the terminal.

Moving between terminals

• A free inter-terminal shuttle bus loops T1, T2 and T3, 24 hours a day. The stops are Gate 12 at T1 Departures, Gate 42 at T2 Departures and Gate 62 at T3 Departures.
• The intercity train also links all three, at Baiyun Airport South, North and East stations, roughly every 17 minutes.
• Check your boarding pass. It states T1, T2 or T3, and the airport's own advice is to confirm the terminal before setting out.

What the metro costs

• CNY 2 for the first 4 km, then CNY 1 more per 4 km up to 12 km, per 6 km from 12 to 24 km, and per 8 km beyond 24 km. The maximum fare is CNY 20.
• It is charged on the shortest route mileage between your two stations, not on the number of stops and not on the straight-line distance, which is why two apparently different journeys often cost the same.
• The APM people mover in Zhujiang New Town is a flat CNY 2.

Buses

• City buses are CNY 2 on routes up to 20 km and CNY 3 above that, under the fare structure the municipal development and reform commission introduced to replace an older five-tier scale.
• Express, night and BRT buses keep their own prices, as do buses in Huadu, Panyu, Conghua and Zengcheng, which are set by the district governments.

Timing

• Allow more than you would elsewhere. Metro plus shuttle plus a 40 minute domestic check-in cut-off at T3 is a chain with two places to lose time.
• The airport recommends Gaode, Baidu or Tencent maps for real-time navigation to T3, which is new enough that other apps may still route you to T1.