Cheap airport transfers
Two things about this airport changed recently and most pages about it have not caught up. Terminal 2 has been closed to the public since April 2026, so every flight, every bus and every taxi now converges on Terminal 1. And the meter in a Lyon taxi is capped by an order of the préfet, not by the airport — which is why the airport calls its own fare table indicative and why the night column is exactly a euro a kilometre above the day one.
One figure, per vehicle, agreed before the wheels turn.
Start here
The six things a traveller actually needs settled before any of the detail is useful: which building, who sets the price, how it is built, why the night column behaves as it does, how far it is, and who to complain to.
Terminal 1, whatever your booking says. Lyon Aéroport announced that Terminal 2 has been closed to the public since 1 April 2026 and that all flights operate from Terminal 1 for the duration of the works. Its own words are that “tous les accès convergent aujourd’hui vers le Terminal 1” — by car, by public transport or by taxi. No reopening date is published.
No. Some French cities have a flat airport fare fixed by order; the Rhône does not. Rank taxis run on the meter, capped by arrêté préfectoral 69-2026-02-19-00002. The airport publishes estimates and calls them indicative, which is the honest word for them. A figure that cannot move has to be agreed before you travel.
Four rates, and an airport run always uses the expensive pair. Tarif C at 2,00 € a kilometre by day and tarif D at 3,00 € at night apply when the client is carried out and the car comes back empty. Add a 3,10 € pickup and 41,30 € an hour for every minute the car is stopped or crawling. Tarifs A and B, at 1,00 € and 1,50 €, are for journeys where you are aboard in both directions.
Because tarif D is exactly 1,00 € a kilometre above tarif C, so on the city routes the gap between the two published columns is the distance. Lyon Centre is €95 at night against €70 by day, a gap of 25, and the airport puts the city at 25 km. Part-Dieu’s gap is 23, Écully’s is 30. Nobody publishes that relationship; it falls straight out of the order.
The airport’s own figure is 25 km by the A432 on to the A43, and it puts the drive at 30 to 40 minutes. That is a touch quicker than most pages claim. Add the rush hour and the eastern ring road and it goes the other way.
The Métropole de Lyon, not the airport and not the préfecture. The loi MAPTAM of 2014 moved taxi police powers from the mayors to the Métropole’s president, and its taxi service is the single point of contact for all 58 communes communes. The préfet sets the maximum fares; the Métropole licenses the cars and takes the complaints.
Our vehicles
From a saloon to a 50-seater coach, each priced for the vehicle rather than the seat. Through the ski season the luggage picks the class more often than the head count does, because a ski bag and a boot bag each is a second set of luggage no form asks about.
Normally a Volkswagen Passat or similarSaloon taxi
4 passengers, 2 large bags
Two with a case each into the Presqu’île. The ordinary Lyon booking.
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Normally a Mercedes E-Class or similarExecutive car
3 passengers, 2 large bags
Up to three, and the usual choice for the Cité Internationale congresses.
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Normally an estate taxiEstate taxi
4 passengers, 3 large bags
Four guests and three large cases, which a saloon boot will not take.
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Normally a 6-seater MPV people carrierPeople carrier
5 to 6 passengers, 4 to 5 large bags
Five or six, pushchair included, with the boot still usable.
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Normally a 7 seater taxi7 seater taxi
7 passengers, 7 cabin bags
Seven friends or a family travelling light.
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Normally an 8 seater taxi8 seater taxi
8 passengers, 6 to 8 large bags
Eight people, or a group with golf bags.
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Normally a 16 seater minibus16 seater minibus
16 passengers, about 14 large bags
Weddings, teams and tour groups.
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Normally a 30-seater coach30-seater coach
30 seats
Conferences and corporate groups.
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Normally a 50-seater coach50-seater coach
50 seats
Large events and incentive trips, planned in advance.
View vehicle →| Extra | What to know |
|---|---|
| Child seats | Infant, child and booster seats are available on request at no extra cost. In Spain a seat is needed for children under 135 cm, with a narrow exemption for taxis on urban journeys, so give us the children’s ages when you book. |
| Surfboards, golf clubs, bikes | Fine with notice. Tell us the item and its length at booking so a vehicle with the right load space is allocated. |
| Wheelchair-accessible vehicles | Request one at booking so we can confirm a suitable vehicle for your route and date. |
Every vehicle is shown on our fleet page. Models are typical for each class, so your quote confirms what is offered. Tell us your party size and bag count so the right vehicle is allocated.
Reviews
The scores below are the ones our review widget publishes, checked on 14 October 2026. They come from travellers at airports across our network, and we show a selection of passenger reviews about airport transfers. Every review stays on the platform where it was written.
Excellent4.9453 reviewsShowing all 10 reviews
Excellent service...arrived at terminal and driver was waiting...helped with luggage to the car...smooth drive...perfect overall
Very reliable and easy to get a hold of. I was very confused leaving the airport - user error haha - and they were super helpful. My flight was also delayed and the guy who picked me up was on top of it.
Super affordable and professional service! The pricing was very clear from the start, with no hidden charges, which I really appreciated. Everything went smoothly, and the professionalism of the global airport taxi service stood out. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a hassle-free and budget-friendly option.
Amazing taxi service to the airport! Our driver was friendly, on time, and made the whole trip so easy. The car was clean and comfortable, and we got to the airport right on time. Would definitely use this service again!
Excellent service , driver waited for us as flight was delayed, clean car and smooth ride
I would totally recommend Global Airport Taxi to anyone needing a taxi service for their airport commute. I decided on way to the airport that I was flying out of that I will need a cab service at LHR. They were quick to respond to and accommodated some of my last minute schedule change requests after I had landed at LHR. Totally reliable and willing to be flexible. Outstanding customer support provided by Jennifer and Root. Keep it up guys !!
This was a brilliant service our driver was excellent he was friendly and helpful. Used again for the return journey and driver was professional and ensured we made it to the airport on time with heavy traffic
The service was extremely reliable. My cab arrived exactly on time for my early morning flight, which was a huge relief. Everything went smoothly, and I felt confident choosing this service. Highly recommend global airport taxi for stress-free airport transfers!
Amazing customer service, on time driver helped with cases. A pleasant experience Thank you
Very clean car and on time very polite driver will use them again
These scores cover the whole network rather than Lyon alone. Trustindex supplies the widget and every review appears exactly as its author wrote it. None of it was written by us, and nothing on this page quotes a review of anybody else’s service.
Terminal 1
The most important fact about Lyon Saint-Exupéry in 2026 is not a fare. It is that half the airport is shut, and a good deal of what is written about it still assumes otherwise.
The short answer Terminal 2 at Lyon Saint-Exupéry has been closed to the public since 1 April 2026 and all flights operate from Terminal 1 while modernisation works run. Drop-off and pick-up are at Parking Minute T1A and T1B; the Terminal 2 minute parking is closed. Lounges, reduced-mobility assistance and the ZenLine security booking service have all moved to Terminal 1. The airport publishes no reopening date. Terminal 3, the old low-cost terminal, had already ceased operating before this.
It makes it simpler, which is the one good thing to come out of a building site. There is no longer a terminal to get wrong. Your driver waits inside the Terminal 1 arrivals hall past the exit from baggage reclaim, with a name board, rather than at the kerb where stopping time is strictly limited. The most common mistake on a booking form is still to enter the gate number instead of the flight number — the gate tells nobody anything, and the flight number is what lets the pickup follow the actual landing.
Both have consolidated with everything else. The airport’s own taxi page puts the rank “au pied du Terminal 1 ou de la gare TGV” and names nowhere else, and describes taxis as available around the clock, seven days a week, at the terminal exits. The TCL buses use the bus station at Terminal 1. The TGV station is still its own building, joined to the terminal by a covered walkway with moving belts — allow ten minutes with luggage, and there is a taxi rank outside it too.
The border
Every page about this airport tells you where the taxi rank is. None of them mentions the thing that now stands between an arriving non-EU passenger and that rank.
The short answer The EU Entry/Exit System has been fully operational since 10 April 2026, replacing passport stamping at external borders with a record of a facial image and four fingerprints. Children under 12 are exempt from the fingerprints but not the photograph. Nationals of EU and Schengen states, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco and the Holy See are unaffected, as are holders of long-stay visas and residence permits. No official body publishes how long enrolment takes; Lyon Aéroport says only that it may add a few minutes and to allow extra time. ETIAS is not yet in operation; the fee is set at 20 euros.
Every euro figure on this page that is not marked as ours belongs to somebody else: the préfecture sets the meter, the airport publishes its estimates, the transport authority prices the tram. All three revise on their own calendars and none of them tells us first. The only number that binds us is the one on your quote.
The tariff
Two different authorities govern the car that picks you up, and almost nothing written about this airport separates them. One licenses the vehicle. The other caps what it may charge.
The short answer Taxis at Lyon Saint-Exupéry are licensed by the Métropole de Lyon and priced by the préfet du Rhône under arrêté 69-2026-02-19-00002. For 2026 the maxima are a 3,10 € pickup, 41,30 € an hour of waiting, and a 8,00 € course minimum. Kilometre rates are 1,00 € and 1,50 € with the client aboard both ways, and 2,00 € by day and 3,00 € at night when the car returns empty, which is what an airport journey is. Night runs 19:00 to 07:00, Sundays, public holidays and snow-covered roads.
Day is 07:00 to 19:00. The higher of each pair applies at 19:00 to 07:00, Sundays, public holidays and snow-covered roads. Both the préfecture and the airport state the same hours.
The tariff above is the préfecture’s, revised by order each year. Nothing in it is a quotation from us.
| Supplement | Amount | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Booked ahead | 4,00 € | Added when the journey was reserved in advance rather than taken off the rank. The national arrêté names Lyon as one of the few cities where this applies. |
| Booked for immediately | 2,00 € | The smaller of the two reservation supplements. |
| Fifth passenger | 4,00 € | From the fifth person aboard, not from the first. |
| Luggage | 2,00 € | Per item, and only above three items per person. Three bags each is not a supplement; the fourth is. |
| Motorway and tolls | At cost | Charged only at the client’s express request. A driver who routes you down the A432 without being asked may not bill you for it. |
Tarifs A and B exist for journeys where the driver has you in the car both ways — a return trip, waiting at the far end. An arrival at Lyon Saint-Exupéry is not that. The car carries you the 25 kilometres into the city and then drives 25 kilometres back to the rank with nobody in it, and the tariff prices that honestly rather than hiding it. Tarif C and tarif D are what you are actually quoted against, which is why the airport’s published estimates look high next to a per-kilometre rate somebody quoted you from tarif A.
It charges time instead of distance, at 41,30 € an hour. That is the mechanism behind every story about a Lyon airport fare coming in above the estimate: nothing went wrong, the A43 simply stopped and the meter switched to the clock. Over a 25-kilometre run a slow half-hour is worth about 20 € on its own. A figure agreed before you travel is the same figure whether the road moves or not, and that — rather than any claim about being cheaper — is the actual argument for booking ahead here.
What the airport publishes
Lyon Aéroport publishes indicative metered fares for five destinations in the conurbation, thirteen in the région and twenty-one ski resorts. They are reproduced here exactly as the airport prints them, including the one row that cannot be right.
The short answer Lyon Aéroport publishes indicative metered taxi fares of about €70 by day and €95 at night to Lyon city centre, about €67 and €90 to Part-Dieu, about €50 and €65 to Eurexpo, about €60 and €80 to the Cité Internationale and about €80 and €110 to Écully. The airport labels all of them indicative: the meter decides the actual fare.
These are Lyon Aéroport’s own published figures, reproduced unchanged. The airport calls them tarifs indicatifs. The meter, not the estimate, decides what a rank taxi actually charges.
| Destination | Day | Night, Sunday, holiday | Implied by the gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lyon Centre Bellecour, the Presqu’île, the Hôtel-Dieu | ≈ 70 € | ≈ 95 € | 25 km |
| Lyon Part-Dieu The main station and the business district | ≈ 67 € | ≈ 90 € | 23 km |
| Eurexpo The exhibition park at Chassieu | ≈ 50 € | ≈ 65 € | 15 km |
| Cité Internationale The congress centre by the Parc de la Tête d’Or | ≈ 60 € | ≈ 80 € | 20 km |
| Écully emlyon and the western suburbs | ≈ 80 € | ≈ 110 € | 30 km |
The fourth column is ours, not the airport’s. Because tarif D is exactly 1,00 € a kilometre above tarif C, the night figure minus the day figure is the distance — and for Lyon Centre it lands on the 25 km the airport itself publishes.
Read at source on 21 October 2026. An arrêté can be replaced between one visit to this page and the next.
| Destination | Day | Night, Sunday, holiday |
|---|---|---|
| Bourgoin-Jallieu | 55-60 € | 70-75 € |
| Vienne | 65-70 € | 100-110 € |
| Givors | 60-65 € | 90-100 € |
| Villefranche-sur-Saône | 75-80 € | 100-110 € |
| Bourg-en-Bresse | 45-50 € | 65-70 € |
| Saint-Étienne | 115-120 € | 165-170 € |
| Mâcon | 115-125 € | 175-180 € |
| Chambéry | 140-150 € | 190-200 € |
| Grenoble | 150-160 € | 210-220 € |
| Valence centre | 160-170 € | 250-260 € |
| Annecy | 170-180 € | 275-280 € |
| Moûtiers | 230-240 € | 330-340 € |
| Genève | 250-255 € | 340-350 € |
The highlighted row is the airport’s published figure for Bourg-en-Bresse. The section below sets out why it cannot be right.
The arithmetic
Set the airport’s table beside the préfet’s order and four things appear that neither document mentions. Each is checkable with a calculator and the tariff above.
The short answer Because tarif D is exactly one euro a kilometre above tarif C, the gap between Lyon Aéroport’s day and night estimates equals the road distance: 25 km to the city centre, 23 to Part-Dieu, 15 to Eurexpo. Three further things follow from the same comparison. L’Alpe d’Huez is the only one of twenty-one resorts whose night fare is lower than its day fare. The published Bourg-en-Bresse figure is about a third of what the tariff produces over that distance. And the resort fares are price bands rather than a per-kilometre calculation, because several resorts at different distances share a figure.
Tarif D is 1,00 € a kilometre above tarif C and nothing else in the order behaves that way. So on the city routes, night minus day gives kilometres: Lyon Centre 25, Part-Dieu 23, Cité Internationale 20, Écully 30, Eurexpo 15. The first of those is the figure the airport publishes for the city on a different page entirely.
L’Alpe d’Huez is published at 384 € by day and 382 € at night — the only one of the twenty-one where the night figure is the lower of the two. Every other resort rises, most of them by well over a hundred euros. The airport publishes no note about it. We are pointing it out, not correcting it on their behalf.
The airport publishes 45-50 € by day. Bourg-en-Bresse is roughly 75 km by road, and tarif C alone gives 3,10 € + 75 × 2,00 € = 153,10 € before a single minute of waiting. The published figure is about a third of the arithmetic. Either the number or the destination is wrong, and we would rather say so than reprint it without comment.
551 € appears for Avoriaz, Tignes, Val d’Isère and Valfréjus. 442 € for La Clusaz, Le Grand-Bornand and Les 2 Alpes. 491 € for Les Arcs and Valloire. Those are not the same distance from Lyon by any road, so the resort figures are price bands rather than a kilometre calculation — which is worth knowing before you use one to predict your own.
These are the airport’s own estimates, and the airport says so itself by calling them indicative. The meter decides.
Because an estimate you cannot take apart is an estimate you cannot check. Nearly every page about this airport reprints the €70 and the €95 without saying where they come from, which leaves a reader with two numbers and no way of telling whether their own journey will land near them. Taken apart, the figures tell you something useful: the distance is doing less work than the traffic. On a free road the meter undershoots the estimate. In a jam it overshoots it. The estimate is an average of a thing that is not very average.
That the airport is wrong, except in the one row where the arithmetic says it is. Indicative figures are allowed to be rough and the airport says plainly that they are. We are also not claiming our own figures beat them — on a quiet weekday afternoon over a short distance the meter will often win, and we would rather you heard that here. The case for a fixed figure is the night rate, the Sunday rate, the ski Saturday and the evening the motorway stops.
Where people go
Ten places, chosen because that is where this airport’s passengers end up. Each record carries what an authority publishes about the journey and the one thing the fare does not tell you. Where no distance is published, none is invented.
The airport puts the city at 25 km and the drive at 30 to 40 minutes. Its own indicative meter figures are ≈ 70 € by day and ≈ 95 € at night, and the 25 € between them is exactly the 25 kilometres at the one-euro step between tarif C and tarif D.
The low-emission zone covers almost all of Lyon, so the vehicle that collects you has to be Crit’Air 2 or cleaner to set you down at your door.
Indicative ≈ 67 € by day and ≈ 90 € at night. The 23 € gap implies 23 km, a touch closer than the city centre, which matches the geography.
Part-Dieu has several entrances and more than one drop-off area. Tell us the exit or the hotel door rather than the station name.
The cheapest destination the airport publishes: ≈ 50 € by day, ≈ 65 € at night. GL events, which runs the site, puts it twenty minutes from the terminal.
Nobody official publishes a kilometre figure from the airport to Eurexpo. Twenty minutes is the operator’s own number and is all there is.
Indicative ≈ 60 € by day and ≈ 80 € at night, implying about 20 km — closer to the airport than Bellecour is, which surprises most people.
Congress season runs through spring and autumn, and the hotels here fill before the city centre does.
The dearest run inside the conurbation at ≈ 80 € by day and ≈ 110 € at night, because you cross the whole city to reach it. The 30 € gap implies 30 km.
Allow longer than the fare suggests on a weekday morning. The crossing, not the distance, is what costs the time.
Chambéry is published at 140-150 € by day and 190-200 € at night. Moûtiers, the rail-head for the Trois Vallées, at 230-240 € and 330-340 €.
Saturday is changeover day in the Alps. The valley road beyond Albertville is the single most reliable delay on this airport’s map.
The airport publishes 250-255 € by day and 340-350 € at night, the highest non-resort figure on its list.
Geneva airport has a French sector and a Swiss sector and they are reached differently. Tell us which one; people miss flights over it.
Published at 150-160 € by day and 210-220 € at night.
Grenoble-Alpes-Isère airport is a winter charter field a long way from Grenoble itself. If you mean the airport, say the airport.
Published at 75-80 € by day and 100-110 € at night.
The third Thursday of November fills every village north of Lyon. In 2026 that is the 19th.
Published at 115-120 € by day and 165-170 € at night.
No useful rail link runs from this airport to Saint-Étienne without going through Lyon first, which is why the road figure is the one that matters.
A published estimate is a guide to a meter, not a price. The two part company in traffic.
The Alps
In winter a large share of this airport’s traffic turns east into the mountains, which is why Lyon Aéroport publishes a separate taxi table for ski resorts at all. Here is the whole of it, including the five resorts most pages leave out and the one entry that runs backwards.
The short answer Lyon Aéroport publishes indicative taxi fares for twenty-one Alpine resorts, from €218 by day for Chamonix to €384 for L’Alpe d’Huez, and from €322 to €551 at night. The night figures are higher because an empty return at night is charged at €3,00 a kilometre against €2,00 by day, and ski charters usually land in the evening. Resorts change over on Saturdays, when valley traffic beyond Albertville can add well over an hour to the drive.
| Resort | Day | Night, Sunday, holiday | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chamonix | 218 € | 322 € | +104 € |
| La Clusaz | 305 € | 442 € | +137 € |
| Les 2 Alpes | 305 € | 442 € | +137 € |
| Le Corbier | 317 € | 449 € | +132 € |
| Méribel | 318 € | 453 € | +135 € |
| La Tania | 327 € | 458 € | +131 € |
| Avoriaz | 327 € | 551 € | +224 € |
| Les Ménuires | 330 € | 473 € | +143 € |
| Le Grand-Bornand | 332 € | 442 € | +110 € |
| Courchevel | 339 € | 470 € | +131 € |
| Valloire | 345 € | 491 € | +146 € |
| La Plagne | 349 € | 502 € | +153 € |
| Les Arcs | 349 € | 491 € | +142 € |
| Megève | 361 € | 513 € | +152 € |
| Val Cenis | 361 € | 524 € | +163 € |
| Val Thorens | 361 € | 516 € | +155 € |
| Tignes | 382 € | 551 € | +169 € |
| Serre-Chevalier | 383 € | 513 € | +130 € |
| Val d'Isère | 383 € | 551 € | +168 € |
| Valfréjus | 383 € | 551 € | +168 € |
| L'Alpe d'Huez | 384 € | 382 € | −2 € |
The highlighted row is L’Alpe d’Huez, the only resort of the twenty-one whose published night fare is lower than its day fare. Serre-Chevalier, Val Cenis, Valfréjus, Valloire and L’Alpe d’Huez are the five that most pages about this airport omit.
Figures set by a public authority move when that authority moves them, which is not when we would choose.
Alpine resorts change over on Saturdays, so every chalet, coach, hire car and taxi in the eastern half of this région moves within the same few hours, and the valley roads beyond Albertville carry all of it. On a meter that time is charged at 41,30 € an hour, and an extra ninety minutes in a Tarentaise queue is worth about 60 € on its own. On a figure agreed in advance it is worth nothing. That is the entire case for booking ahead on a winter Saturday, and it has nothing to do with being cheaper on a Tuesday.
Ski charters land in the evening more often than they land at lunchtime, so on these routes the night rate is the normal case rather than the exception. Over two hundred kilometres the step from 2,00 € to 3,00 € a kilometre is the difference between the two columns in the table above, and for the Tarentaise resorts that is well over a hundred and fifty euros. Look at Val d’Isère: 383 € by day, 551 € at night, on the airport’s own figures.
On Saturday 8 February 2025 the press recorded more than 60 kilometres of jams across Isère and Savoie, peaking at 64 kilometres at about 09:20 and concentrated mainly on the A43 between Lyon and Chambéry — which is the road every Lyon ski transfer uses. The RN90 towards the Tarentaise resorts was badly slowed as well, having reopened the day before. What the Préfecture de Savoie did publish for that weekend was a forecast of about 130 000 vehicles between the Friday and the Sunday, with a warning about drivers leaving the RN90 for smaller roads. Those figures are from the press rather than from a traffic authority, and the report does not attribute them to Bison Futé. Most pages about this airport say Saturdays can be slower. That is what slower means.
The loi Montagne obliges vehicles in designated mountain communes to carry winter equipment from 1 November to 31 March, across 34 départements, in designated mountain communes of the Alps, Corsica, the Massif Central, the Jura, the Pyrenees and the Vosges. Isère is confirmed on the préfecture’s own page, under an arrêté of 12 January 2026 which added Claix and Varces-Allières-et-Risset to the list of communes. Savoie publishes the obligation on its own préfecture site. We could not reach a Haute-Savoie préfecture page to confirm it directly, so this page does not assert it. Every list we found includes the département; none of those lists was an official one. Winter tyres must carry the 3PMSF alpine marking. All-season tyres count only if they carry it. Studded tyres satisfy the obligation. Chains or snow socks must be carried on board, ready to use, for at least two driving wheels. And the part nobody mentions: There is no enforceable fine, and that is the government’s own position. Answering a Senate question on 12 February 2026, the Ministry of the Interior said the measure “a été appliquée de manière pédagogique, sans sanction”, that a sanction would require a décret, and that the décret could not be published in 2025. The 135 € figure circulating for this appears only in the senator’s question, not in the answer. The obligation only bites where the road authority has put up the B58 and B59 signs. The Isère préfecture describes the obligation as covering vehicles of four wheels or more — cars, vans, buses and lorries. No official source names taxis or VTC, and none exempts them.
Six people with six ski bags and six boot bags do not fit in a car built for six people with hand luggage, and the discovery is always made at the kerb. Give us both numbers and the vehicle is chosen against the luggage. Child and booster seats are free and are a legal requirement in France, so they have to be asked for at booking: a driver cannot improvise one outside Terminal 1.
The alternatives
Three public services reach this airport and all three are run under SYTRAL Mobilités or SNCF. Here is what each costs, where it actually goes, and the two places where official sources contradict each other.
The short answer The Rhônexpress tram runs between the airport and Lyon Part-Dieu in under 30 minutes. Its operator publishes a single at €17,40 at the machine and €16,30 online, a return at €30,30 and €28,50, and €10,70 for 12 to 25 year olds online; Lyon Aéroport’s help centre still quotes the 2025 scale of €16 and €28. TCL bus lines C200 and 248 reach the bus station at Terminal 1 for the price of an ordinary network ticket, which the airport gives as both €1,90 and €2,10 on the same page. The tram runs from 04:25 to around midnight, every 15 minutes through the day, but the first departure from the airport is 05:00 while the first from Part-Dieu is 04:25. The operator refunds half a single fare for a delay over ten minutes and the whole of it over twenty. The standard Lyon City Card does not include the tram; a separate, dearer Lyon City Card Rhônexpress bundle does. The TGV station serves Paris and the Mediterranean, not central Lyon.
Where a charge here applies to your journey it sits inside the figure we quote, so the number to act on stays the quote.
| Line | Route | What to watch | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| C200 | Vaulx-en-Velin La Soie to Genas Dormont, with some runs continuing to the airport | One run in three on weekdays and one in two at weekends goes to the airport. The airport puts Genas to the terminal at about 40 minutes and gives no time from La Soie. | Daily, 04:50 to midnight. Every 10 minutes at peak on the main route; no airport-specific frequency is published. |
| 248 | Meyzieu ZI to Maréchal Juin, calling at the airport | The shorter of the two, and the one that stops earliest in the evening. | Monday to Friday 05:30 to 22:00. Weekends and public holidays 05:20 to 21:25. Every 30 minutes at peak. |
Lyon Saint-Exupéry has its own high-speed station, joined to the terminal by a covered walkway with moving belts. It is genuinely useful — and it does not go to Lyon. It serves Paris and the Mediterranean, not the city twenty-five kilometres west of it. For Paris the train is simply the right answer and we will say so when you ask for a quote: about two hours against four and a half by road. For central Lyon it is not an option at all, and a surprising number of travellers arrive expecting it to be.
The tram stops for the night. Line 248 finishes at 22:00 on weekdays and 21:25 at weekends. Only some C200 runs reach the airport in the first place — one in three on weekdays. After that the airport describes the rank as running around the clock, and a journey arranged in advance means somebody is already standing in the hall rather than you working out which of the above has stopped.
The low-emission zone
Almost nothing written about airport transport in Lyon mentions this, and it is the rule most likely to affect which vehicle can actually reach your door.
The short answer Since 1 January 2026 only vehicles with a Crit’Air 0, 1 or 2 sticker may drive or park inside the Lyon low-emission zone. The zone covers Lyon except the port Édouard Herriot and Saint-Rambert, Caluire-et-Cuire, the Laurent Bonnevay and north périphériques, the parts of Bron, Vénissieux and Villeurbanne inside Bonnevay, and the M6 and M7. The airport is outside the zone. The restriction applies 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, and a breach is a third-class fine of 68 euros for a car or a fourth-class fine of 135 euros for a lorry, bus or coach, for a parked vehicle as much as a moving one. Crit’Air 3, 4, 5 and unclassified vehicles have been banned since 1 January 2025. No published derogation covers taxis or VTC, and nothing the Métropole publishes addresses foreign-registered vehicles.
Transport fares in this région are set by SYTRAL Mobilités, not by us, and are reproduced here as orientation.
For a transfer it is a question about the vehicle rather than about you: the car that sets you down at a door in the 1st or the 6th has to be clean enough to be there. For a hire car it is a question you have to ask at the desk, because the sticker belongs to the car and not to the hirer, and the zone covers Lyon itself, Caluire-et-Cuire, both ring roads and the inner parts of Bron, Vénissieux and Villeurbanne. Add the parking and the one-way system and a city break by hire car in Lyon is more trouble than it repays. For the Beaujolais, the Drôme or the Ardèche it is the right call.
The Métropole’s 2026 leaflet for private individuals sets out which stickers may enter and says nothing at all about when the restriction applies or what breaching it costs. Its website says both: continuously, and 68 € for a car. A reader who picks up the leaflet alone comes away with half the rule. That is worth knowing in itself, because it is the leaflet that gets handed out. What neither of them covers is the foreign-plated visitor, and that gap is real.
The rank
France regulates taxis closely and this airport enforces it. Four rules keep you clear of almost everything travellers report here, and four dates in the year are when the rank stops being the easy option.
The short answer The taxi rank at Lyon Saint-Exupéry is at the foot of Terminal 1 and at the TGV station, and the airport describes it as running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Take the first car in the line, expect the meter rather than a quoted figure, ignore anyone offering a taxi inside the terminal, and ask for the receipt. The queue is longest on winter Saturdays, during major Eurexpo fairs, across the Fête des Lumières in December and after the tram stops for the night.
Charter flights land close together and a good share of the cars are already committed to runs into the Tarentaise. This is the longest queue of the year at this airport.
Sirha in late January is the hardest of them. The Monday-morning and Friday-evening peaks of a major fair empty a rank faster than anything else in the calendar.
Four evenings, close to two million visitors and a central perimeter closed to traffic. The city’s own advice is to leave the car and use the network.
Fewer drivers on shift, no tram at all, and the buses finished hours earlier.
On an ordinary weekday afternoon the rank works, you will wait a few minutes and you will pay the meter. It is a regulated service on a published tariff and there is nothing wrong with taking it. On the four occasions above it is a different proposition, and that is the only circumstance in which we would tell you booking ahead is worth the trouble.
A tariff can be raised, a concession renegotiated and an estimate quietly refreshed between one trip and the next.
Not published
A page that fills every gap with a plausible number is more useful right up until the moment it is wrong. These are the questions about this airport that no authority answers, and saying so is more honest than guessing.
“Not published” is not the same as “not verified”. Everything above is a gap in what an authority puts in writing. Where we simply could not confirm something, this page leaves it out entirely rather than listing it here.
The calendar
This city runs one of the busiest exhibition calendars in Europe out of a site between the airport and the centre, and holds a festival in December that moves close to two million people in four evenings. Both change what your transfer should look like.
The short answer The Fête des Lumières runs over four evenings from Saturday 5 to Tuesday 8 December 2026, is free, and draws close to two million visitors; the city closes a central perimeter to vehicles and advises leaving the car. The main Eurexpo fairs are Equita from 28 October 2026, Epoqu’Auto in early November, Piscine Global in mid-November, Japan Touch at the end of the month, Sirha from 21 January 2027 and Pollutec in October 2027. Eurexpo is at Chassieu, which its operator puts twenty minutes from the airport.
Published by the authority today and revisable by the authority tomorrow. Treat the column as a shape, not a promise.
Olympique Lyonnais play here and the site is also used for large events. It sits on the Rhônexpress line, tram T3 reaches Décines Grand Large about fifteen minutes’ walk away, and by road it is exit 7 of the Rocade Est.
Medical and scientific congresses run through spring and autumn. The airport publishes an indicative taxi fare to it, which it does not do for most addresses.
The 2026 season ran from 28 May to 25 July, so calling it a June festival undersells it. The hill has very restricted vehicle access and the programme also uses the Halle Tony Garnier, the Musée des Confluences and others. No 2027 dates are announced.
The third Thursday of November. Villefranche-sur-Saône and the villages north of Lyon fill up for the weekend, and the airport publishes an indicative fare to Villefranche.
The city
Two rivers, two hills, a UNESCO-listed old town and a food culture that picks fights with Paris. Here is what is there, without a column of invented drive times.
One of the largest Renaissance quarters in Europe, and part of Lyon’s UNESCO listing. The traboules — covered passages cut through the blocks so silk could be carried in the dry — are the thing to look for, and some are still open to walk.
The basilica on the skyline and, just below it, two Roman theatres still used for performance. The esplanade explains the city’s geography faster than any map.
The tongue of land between the Rhône and the Saône: the big squares, the shopping streets, the opera house and the bouchons.
Natural history and anthropology in a steel-and-glass building at the point where the two rivers meet. For a good many visitors the building is the reason.
102 cours Lafayette, in the 3rd. Open daily 07:00 to 22:30 and closed on Mondays, with further closures on 1 January, Easter Monday, 1 May, 14 July, 15 August, 1 and 11 November and 25 December. The city warns that individual traders also take Mondays off, so the building being open is not the same as your stall being open.
A large free park with a lake, botanical gardens and a zoo, next to the Cité Internationale. The easiest thing in Lyon to do with children and jet lag.
The silk-weavers’ hill: more traboules, a daily market, and the Mur des Canuts. Steep.
A walled medieval village on a hilltop in the Ain, on the official Plus Beaux Villages de France list. That list puts it about thirty kilometres from Lyon and the local tourist office says forty minutes; neither publishes a distance from the airport, and we are not going to invent one.
Because nobody official publishes them, and a transfer page that invents a column of twenty of them is inventing twenty numbers. What is published is the airport’s own 25 kilometres to the city and its own 30 to 40 minutes, and the five indicative fares on its taxi page. Everything else here is a description of the place rather than a claim about the clock. If a particular address matters to your timing, send it and we will work the route rather than guess at it.
The geography. Two rivers, two hills and a long thin peninsula between them, with the Renaissance quarter on the far bank from the shopping streets and a basilica up a slope steep enough to need a funicular. Addresses that look adjacent on a map are separated by water or by a climb, and the low-emission zone sits over nearly all of it. A driver who knows the city will ask which quay or which side rather than which arrondissement.
The airport itself
What this airport actually is, before anyone sells you a way out of it.
The short answer Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS / LFLL) is at Colombier-Saugnieu in the Rhône, about 25 km east of Lyon by the A432 and A43, and is operated by Aéroports de Lyon within the VINCI Airports network. It handled 10,723,000 passengers in 2025, up 2,3 per cent, which makes it the fifth-busiest airport in France. It has its own TGV station serving Paris and the Mediterranean, and since April 2026 a single terminal in use.
That combination is what makes this airport feel busier than its size on the days it is busy. Ten and a half million passengers a year through a single building, with the arrivals of a ski charter wave landing inside the same hour, is why the rank queue on a February Saturday behaves nothing like the rank queue on a Tuesday in October. It is also why the airport has pushed its own free security slot-booking service so hard, and why the practical advice for a winter departure is to treat the published check-in time as a floor rather than a target.
Going back
The drive is the same 25 kilometres in the other direction, and almost nothing else about it is the same.
The short answer Allow 45 minutes from the Presqu’île or Vieux Lyon outside the rush hour and an hour within it, 30 to 40 minutes from Part-Dieu or Villeurbanne, and 45 to 55 from Écully because the route crosses the whole city. Then add the check-in time your airline recommends. For flights before 07:00, check the first tram of the day against that check-in time before relying on it.
We re-read these at their own sources periodically. Between those reads, assume drift.
The booking
Everything a booking carries, everything it does not, and every figure we are still waiting on — set out in one table rather than scattered through the terms.
The short answer A Lyon airport transfer booking includes 60 minutes of free waiting from the actual landing time, flight tracking by flight number, luggage within the vehicle’s capacity, and child or booster seats free on request. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before pickup. Payment is taken in full at booking with no deposit and no card surcharge, and the fare is per vehicle rather than per passenger.
| Condition | What applies | Why it is set that way |
|---|---|---|
| Free waiting after an airport arrival | 60 minutes | Measured from when the aircraft is on the ground, not from the hour on the ticket. |
| Free waiting on a non-Schengen arrival | CONFIRM: whether non-Schengen arrivals get longer than 60 minutes | Border formalities on a non-Schengen arrival take longer and are worth allowing for. |
| Free waiting at any other pickup | 15 minutes | From the time you set, because nothing is being tracked. |
| Waiting past the included time | CONFIRM: the charge for waiting past the included time | Priced onto the booking, not settled at the kerb. |
| Free cancellation | Up to 24 hours before pickup | |
| Inside that, and no-shows | CONFIRM: the cancellation charge inside 24 hours | |
| An additional stop | CONFIRM: the charge for an additional stop | |
| Child, booster and baby seats | Free on request | Required by French law, and they have to be asked for at booking. |
| Deposit | None. Payment is taken in full at booking. | |
| How far ahead | At least 12 hours, and 48 for a coach, an accessible vehicle or a group | |
| Payment | Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay | No card surcharge, and a receipt that survives an expenses system. |
A ceiling fixed by order is a limit on somebody else, not an undertaking by us. Only the quote is that.
Vehicles
Nine classes, from a car for two to a coach for fifty, and the figure covers whichever one turns up rather than whoever is sitting in it.
| Class | Seats | Large cases | Cabin bags | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saloon | 4 | 2 | 2 | Two people and a case each into the city. The ordinary booking for eleven months of the year, and the wrong one in February. |
| Estate | 4 | 3 | 3 | Four and three large cases. On this airport the estate is the quiet answer to a ski booking that is not quite big enough for a van. |
| Executive | 3 | 2 | 2 | Up to three. Booked for the Cité Internationale congresses and for the Écully business schools more than for anything else here. |
| People carrier | 6 | 4 | 4 | Six seats and four large cases, with room left over on the two-and-a-half hours to the Tarentaise. |
| 7-seater | 7 | 4 | 5 | Seven and four large cases. The seventh seat is the tight one once boot bags are aboard. |
| 8-seater | 8 | 6 | 8 | Eight and six large cases, and still under the nine-seat line that changes the driver’s legal position. |
| 16-seater | 16 | 14 | 16 | Above nine seats, where European drivers’ hours law starts to govern the journey as well as the price. |
| 30-seater coach | 30 | 30 | 30 | Group travel to a resort or a congress, booked well ahead. |
| 50-seater coach | 50 | 50 | 50 | A full party, where the lead time matters more than the vehicle does. |
What is included
Every extra that a meter or an app might add is covered in the fare you are quoted. The conditions behind each line are in our terms and in your confirmation.
Inside the Terminal 1 arrivals hall, name board up, past the exit from baggage reclaim — not at the kerb, where stopping time is strictly limited.
The booking follows the flight number rather than the timetable, so a late inbound moves the pickup instead of losing it. The gate number is the one field that helps nobody.
For airport arrivals the first 60 minutes after landing cost nothing, enough for the border and the carousel (see your booking terms).
Agreed at booking for the whole vehicle rather than per head, and it does not move for the hour, the traffic or the day of the week. VAT and any airport charge are itemised on the summary rather than buried in the total.
Baby, toddler and booster seats on request, at no charge. French law requires an approved restraint for children under 10; article R412-2 of the Code de la route is reported to except taxis from it, while VTC are not excepted. That is a real difference and it is one of the reasons we ask you to request the seat at booking rather than assume one.
Every journey is run by a licensed local operator, and the driver and vehicle are named on your confirmation before you travel.
Free to cancel until 24 hours ahead of the pickup time. Inside that, and on a no-show, the booking terms govern.
Phone, WhatsApp or email, from booking until you reach your address in Lyon.
Luggage up to the class capacity is inside the fare, ski bags included once you have told us about them. A second address, or waiting past the included time, is priced onto the booking first rather than settled at the kerb.
Trust
Here is who arranges your booking, what we commit to and where the full wording lives.
Global Airport Taxi is a trading name of QMH Technologies Ltd: company no. 13506378, VAT GB 469 6859 13, registered in England and Wales, 10-16 Tiller Road, London E14 8PX. Contact: bookings@globalairporttaxi.com or WhatsApp.
We handle the booking; a licensed local driver does the trip, and your confirmation names the driver and the vehicle.
You can pay by card, PayPal or Google Pay via secure, certified gateways. Personal data follows UK data protection law and the GDPR.
| Promise | What it means | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed fare | The fare on the booking page is the one you confirm. | Booking page |
| Flight following | The pickup tracks your flight number and landing. | Booking confirmation |
| Free waiting | Up to 60 minutes after landing at airport arrivals. | Your booking terms |
| Child seats | Free if asked for, with the child’s age noted. | Booking notes |
| Licensed driver | A licensed local driver, named in your confirmation. | Booking confirmation |
| Free cancellation | Until 24 hours before pickup. | Terms, “Cancellations & refunds” |
| Late cancellations and no-shows | Not refunded unless the transport provider is at fault. | Terms, “Cancellations & refunds” |
| Right details | Flight, pickup and contact details must be correct, or extra charges may follow. | Terms, “General booking terms” |
If your confirmation says something different from this page, follow the confirmation. The complete conditions are in our terms and privacy policy.
How it works
Booking takes a few minutes. These are the four things that happen afterwards, in order.
The field that does the most work. We follow the real landing time, so an early or a late arrival changes nothing for you — and the gate number, which people enter instead, tells a driver nothing at all.
Before pickup you receive the driver’s name, mobile number and the meeting point inside Terminal 1. Keep your phone on when you switch off flight mode.
Border control and baggage can take longer than planned, and up to 60 minutes of waiting after landing are included for airport arrivals. If you are held longer, message the driver.
You pay securely online when you book, and your confirmation is emailed once the payment is processed. The fare on it is the fare you pay.
Who we are
The registration details, the licensing question we are still waiting on, and every figure this page is holding open.
Because at this airport they decide more than we do. The order that caps the meter is the reason the night column exists. The terminal closure is the reason your driver is where he is. The low-emission zone decides which vehicle can reach your door. None of those are our rules and all of them affect your journey more than any claim we could make about service. A page about Lyon transfers that only talks about the car is describing the easy part.
Every CONFIRM you can see is a question we have put to the operator and not yet had an answer to. They are rendered rather than hidden because a reader is entitled to know the difference between a figure we checked and a figure nobody has supplied. The list below is the whole of it.
Everything else
41 questions in 7 groups, starting with the one nobody else answers properly: who sets the price of a Lyon taxi, and how.
Book it
One form, one figure for the whole car, and it does not change because the clock passed 19:00 or the A43 stopped.
The short answer Pricing a Lyon airport transfer takes three things: the full destination address, the flight number and the head and bag count. The figure covers the vehicle rather than each passenger, does not change with the hour or the traffic, and cancels free until 24 hours before pickup. Your driver meets you inside the Terminal 1 arrivals hall, which since April 2026 is the only terminal in use.
The full destination address rather than a district, because in Lyon the rivers and the hills decide the route and the low-emission zone decides the vehicle. The flight number, which ties the pickup to the real landing time — not the gate, which is the field people enter instead and which helps nobody. The bag count as well as the head count, which through the ski season is the number that actually picks the car. Tell us if you are going to Geneva and we will ask which sector, because the French side and the Swiss side are reached differently and people miss flights over it.
Get an instant quoteBook your Lyon airport transfer
Settled in full at booking by Visa, Mastercard, American Express and more, cancellable without charge for 24 hours afterwards. And this page’s standing caveat, repeated here because it belongs next to the button: one or two of you, light bags, a weekday afternoon and an address near a metro stop, and the tram wins. Ask us and we will tell you so rather than take the booking.
Where our Lyon passengers go
The ski table in particular is a band table. Bands get redrawn.
An executive car from the network fleet, a Mercedes E-Class or similar. Photograph: Global Airport Taxi.
The figure is settled before you travel, for the whole vehicle rather than per person, and it does not move for the hour or the traffic — which matters more here than at most airports, because the meter switches to the night rate at 19:00 and charges time at 41,30 € an hour when the A43 stops. A driver waits inside the Terminal 1 arrivals hall with a name board. Child seats are free for the asking, and the booking cancels free up to 24 hours out.