Getting from Vienna Airport to the city

Read this first: the September 2026 closure

Vienna is rebuilding the line, and the works are not a weekend inconvenience.

• From 7 September 2026 it will not be possible to reach the city centre on the S7, and the works run until 31 October 2027.
• From the same date the City Airport Train switches to premium buses, running every 12 minutes rather than every 30, taking about 21 minutes.
• A separate cable fire has put the S7 on an emergency timetable from 14 August to 7 September 2026.

If you are travelling in this window, treat the timetables below as history and check the operators on the day. What follows is how the two services compare in normal operation, which is what you will find in every guide.

The comparison the guides skip

The CAT costs nearly three times as much to save about four minutes. That is the whole difference. It is a comfortable train and it is nonstop, but nobody arriving on a budget flight should be steered onto it without being told what the alternative is.

The S7 fare is worth understanding because it is really two tickets: EUR 2.30 carries you from the airport to the Vienna city boundary and EUR 3.20 is the ordinary Vienna ticket for the rest. That second half stays valid for your connecting metro or tram, so the true gap is wider than the headline.

Children aged 6 to 14 pay EUR 2.80 on the S7; under-6s travel free.

Practicalities

• The S7 runs from about 04:00 until after midnight, every 30 minutes.
• Both services use Wien Mitte/Landstrasse, which is on U3 and U4 and about a twelve-minute walk from Stephansplatz.
• The S7 also calls at Wien Praterstern, just under half an hour from the airport.
• Railjet and other OeBB long-distance trains also serve the airport and are the right choice if you are going straight on to Salzburg, Linz or Graz rather than into Vienna.