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 and Spring Airlines' domestic 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 Airport South are describing a station your train now passes through without opening its doors.

Getting to Terminal 3

• T3 opened on 30 October 2025 and took over all of Terminal 1's airlines on 7 May 2026.
• 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 Konggang 2 branch bus from exit B, CNY 2. About 15 minutes, every 5 to 10 minutes from 06:15 to 23:15.
• 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 shuttle bus runs between T2 and T3, 24 hours a day, for transferring passengers. It leaves from bay 30 of the east coach station in the T2 transport centre and takes about 25 minutes.
• The intercity train also links T2 and T3, at Baiyun Airport North and East stations, on average every 14 minutes; trains no longer stop at Baiyun Airport South (T1).
• 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.