1. How to Get From Vienna Airport to Vienna by the S-Bahn

    When you land at Vienna Airport in Austria, you are immediately confronted with advert after advert for the expensive City Airport Train to the centre of Vienna as soon as you enter the terminal. I am not joking when I say that you will see signs for the CAT train everywhere you look – there’s even luggage going around on the baggage reclaim belts advertising it whilst you are standing there! There is however another and much cheaper option to travel to the city centre which is not advertised anywhere at all – the S-Bahn. Even though the S-Bahn train makes several stops on route, it costs a fraction of the price.

    To give you an example of the difference in price: Updated May 2023

    The City Airport Train goes from the airport every thirty minutes to Wien Mitte/Landstraße Station in sixteen minutes and costs €14.90 per adult one way.

    The S7 S-Bahn Train goes from the airport every thirty minutes to Wien Mitte/Landstraße Station (the exact same station) in twenty five minutes (so nine minutes longer) and costs €4.30 for one adult one way but group tickets (Ticket Gruppe) are available making the journey even cheaper. For two adults, it will currently cost €4.80 altogether to travel into the city centre of Vienna which is an absolute bargain.

    The process of buying tickets for the S-Bahn at Vienna Airport is very simple and as always, I took some photos to show how easy it is. After leaving baggage reclaim and customs, turn right and look for the train symbol on the signs overhead which will direct you to the far end of the arrivals hall. There are two red ÖBB ticket machines here as well as an ÖBB ticket desk but these can often be very busy with long lines but there are more ticket machines located further on.

    Follow the ramp down and you will soon see some more ticket machines – make sure to use the red ÖBB machines to buy tickets for the S-Bahn and not the green City Airport Train machines.

    You can use the ticket machines in English and German as well as Italian. After selecting which language you would like, you will see that the “From” box already has “Flughafen Wien Bahnhof” (Vienna Airport Station) listed so all you need to do is select “Vienna” as the destination on the screen.

    On the next screen, you select the number of adult and child tickets you would like by pressing the “+” sign next to each category to make up your travel party. You can also add any additional discounts for each person on this step before pressing “Next”.

    The next screen will be a list of the next trains leaving from Vienna Airport – make sure to select the “S-Bahn 7” option.

    The next screen displays the different tickets available and the total price for each one. Select the “Standard-Ticket” option – this should be the first one listed on the screen as well as being the cheapest. You can look up ticket prices online on the ÖBB website.

    The next step is payment – you can normally pay by cash, debit or credit card though check before you start the transaction as one of the options might temporarily be unavailable as cash was when we bought our tickets. We wanted to pay by credit card anyway and were able to use the contactless feature on the machines throughout Vienna for all of our tickets as we could simply tap our cards to pay each time.

    Once you have your ticket in hand, check the television screens for the next train departure. The S7 S-Bahn runs every thirty minutes.


    Whilst waiting for the S-Bahn, you will see the City Airport Train leave from the opposite platform – it seems so ridiculous that the two trains leaving from the same station and going to the same station are so differently priced especially when the difference in travel time is less than ten minutes between the two.

    There is no dedicated luggage space onboard the S7 S-Bahn so you will need to keep any bags you have near you on the train which has never been an issue whenever I have travelled on it into Vienna. Remember also to keep your ticket to hand as it will be checked by a conductor once the train leaves the airport.

    If you need to access mobile data whilst visiting Austria, you can purchase a travel E-Sim through Airalo. If you would like to use my referral code NIKKI8866 when signing up, you will receive £2.50 / US$3 off your first purchase.

    After arriving at Wien Mitte / Landstraße Station, your ticket is valid for a connection to the U-Bahn network. Line U3 will take you to Stephansplatz, Volkstheater, Westbahnhof and Ottakring whilst line U4 will take you to Karlsplatz, Schönbrunn, Schwedenplatz and Schottenring.

    Have fun in the beautiful city of Vienna.

    Since this blog post was written back in 2019, some of the information may no longer be accurate or up to date. Be sure to do your own research and check official websites for the latest details before making any of your own travel plans.

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    54 thoughts on “How to Get From Vienna Airport to Vienna by the S-Bahn”

        1. denise moore

          Hi Nikki, thank you for this info, I’m going in Dec and will use this. May I just ask, coming home can we buy the red S7 S-Bahn Train ticket from Stephansplatz all the way to the airport? are the self service machines the same as they are at the airport? We are travelling back on a sunday, are the trains still every 30 mins?
          Thanks

          Reply ↓
      2. Eirini

        Nikki, thank you so much for this information. I visited Vienna last week and the ticket price is 4,5 euros. You saved me a lot of money!!!

        Reply ↓
    5. Michelle Russell

      Hi I want to go from Vienna airport train station direct to Graz please looks like there is a direct train on rail jet with no change
      Can you confirm this please ? That we don’t have to get the cat train to Mitte to change to Graz ?
      Thanks

      Reply ↓
      1. Nikki Post author

        Hi Michelle. I had no idea there was even a direct train from Vienna Airport to Graz but I’ve just looked it up and yes there is so you would not need to get the train to Mitte first.

        Reply ↓
    7. Nik

      Thank you for the information. Can you please specify before entering into the train do you need to validate your ticket somehow? Thank you in advance!

      Reply ↓
      1. Nikki Post author

        As far as I am aware as we purchased our ticket for a specified train on the ticket machines from the airport into the city, we did not need to validate our ticket – the actual ticket was too big for the validation machine anyway. However if you purchase a 24/48/72 hour ticket then you will need to validate it before boarding the train.

        Reply ↓
        1. Leann Carroll

          Thank you for your wonderful tips! How do you validate 24/48/72 or 7week ticket before boarding the train. I have already purchased mine from Wiener Linien and it is on the mobile app on my phone. I’m not sure how to validate it before boarding for Vienna.

          Reply ↓
          1. Nikki Post author

            Hi Leann I’m not sure of the answer to this myself but on the Wiener Linien app in the help section there’s a question which asks “Which tickets must be validated?” And the answer they’ve given is “Paper tickets with the imprint must be validated. Digital WienMobil tickets purchased online are used without validation from the selected start time onwards”

            Here’s the link to that page so I hope this helps 🙂

            Reply ↓
    8. Sasa

      Hello. I have seen in a YouTube video someone saying that we can select the ticket to the city limits and then buy a 24h ticket. This whole costs around €9.5. Is this legal and if yes, how/where do we validate the 24h ticket and what do we say to the conductor?

      Reply ↓
      1. Nikki Post author

        Years ago I bought a 72 hour ticket at the airport and just paid for a separate ticket to the city limit. There are validation machines on the platforms at the airport train station and I simply showed the conductor both of the tickets as they walked through the train.

        There is more information about this on Vienna.info 🙂

        Reply ↓
    9. Jayne

      Hello.
      I’m traveling to Vienna for the first time and I’m slightly worried about my suitcase. Is there space for luggage? Or would I be in everyone s way.
      Let me know. Other than that, it was really helpful.

      Reply ↓
    11. Andrew Snape

      Hi Nikki – this is incredibly useful and really well explained – thank you. We’re visiting next month and I was going to add the airport CAT train to my Vienna City Card, but it’s an extra €44 for my wife and I. I’ll just get the City Card and follow your advice for the S7 and save a lot.

      Reply ↓
    13. Rony

      Nikki, I never post comment on anything but as I am currently waiting for my train to go to Vienna’s city centre , I have to say a big thank you for this post. I am solo traveling this time and I felt a bit anxious, but your post helped me to have a very smooth arrival here.

      Thank you very much!!!

      Reply ↓
      1. Nikki Post author

        Thank you Rony and I am so happy I could help you – it’s the main reason I write these posts as I know how it can feel to travel somewhere new.

        Reply ↓
    14. Graham Johnson

      Hi Nikki. We are flying into Vienna, heading into the city for a 4-night stay and then going straight to countryside to play golf so will have 2 large golf travel bags. Will the S7 still be suitable (especially if there’s not a lot of luggage space) or should we consider a taxi? Thanks!

      Reply ↓
      1. Nikki Post author

        Hi Graham I have travelled on the S7 with a suitcase so I think you will be fine. In rush hour the train might be more crowded but outside these times should be okay.

        Reply ↓
    15. Ali

      Thank you very much Nikki. I just boarded the S7 using the instructions that you had published. They are spot on and very helpful. Now this webpage will be my go to during my week long visit to Austria.

      Reply ↓
      1. Nikki Post author

        Thank you Ali and it’s so nice to know that the information is still correct as it’s been a few years since I was last in Vienna. Enjoy Austria 🙂

        Reply ↓
    16. Wendy Martin

      Hi Nikki, thanks for this helpful post. Couple of questions…we are planning to get a multi day Wienerlinen pass, how do we select the OBB ticket that takes us just to the city limits? I can’t figure that out on the website, is there a particular station I should enter on “arrival station”? Or is this an option that is only available at the ticket counter or machines?
      Also, I see REX trains…is that a separate ticket? We arrive at 1730 PM, I figure an hour to get through customs, then there are trains every 15 min but they alternate between REX and S7…should I just figure on buying the ticket depending on which time suits us best? Thanks for your help on this.

      Reply ↓
      1. Nikki Post author

        Hi Wendy from what I remember and from looking on the website, enter “Vienna Airport Station” and your destination station and then go to “Add discount” and select “Ticket Stadtverkehr Wien (Kernzone)” and that will give you the ticket to get to the city limit. If you have any issues though, there is an OBB desk in the arrivals hall at the airport 🙂

        Reply ↓
            1. Wendy Martin

              Hi Nikki we’re in Vienna now, wanted to say your instructions for getting the discount for having the wienerlinen pass worked perfectly, we were able to buy the tickets on the OBB app using that option. 2.10 EU each. Thanks for your help!

    17. Charlie

      Thanks for this really excellent post, so helpful at getting us quickly past the queues at arrivals and onto the S7 into the city, without all of the usual disorientation and stress of grappling with a new transport system and ticket machines.

      Reply ↓
    19. Ebru

      Kaç tane YouTube videosu izledim hatırlamıyorum ama en güzel ve en anlaşılır olanı sizin yazınız. Çok teşekkür ederim.

      Reply ↓
    20. Iro

      Hello Nikki,so helpful your information even though many years later!!What about when we’ll want to go back at the airport from the centre and tickets?Where can we’ll find them??

      Reply ↓
    21. Oguz

      I’m on my to Vienna right now 🙂 and I feel very confident thanks to your great instructions. Thank you very much 🙂🙏

      Reply ↓
    24. Olga McKinnon

      These instructions were so helpful and got me to Vienna Mitte perfectly for only €2.40! The accompanying photos were most useful for using the ticket machines. Thanks

      Reply ↓
      1. ML

        Yes, very helpful for my arrival early morning this past May. Actually I did not have to use the ticket machines, as there was a S-Bahn ticket counter with live English speaking attendants right before the escalator down to the quay to catch the train.
        Saved 50-60 Euros taxi fare to Vienna center. Thank you Nikki!

        Reply ↓

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