Split Airport to the City: Bus, Taxi or Transfer

Split Airport is not in Split. It sits at Kaštela, 24 km west along the coast, which is why the question of how to get into the city comes up on every arrival and why the answer changes depending on where you are actually going.

The one thing most arrivals do not realise: Trogir is 6 km from the terminal and Split is 24. If your first night is in Trogir, you are almost there already.

How far is Split Airport from the city centre?

24 km, about 28 minutes by car in clear traffic. The road runs along the coast through Kaštela and into Split from the west. In peak summer, and on afternoons when several flights land together, it can stretch past forty-five minutes — the coastal approach is the only way in and it carries all the traffic.

The public bus

Bus 37 costs €3 and takes about 50 minutes. It is the Split–Trogir local line, it stops everywhere along the way, and you buy the ticket from the driver. It does not go to the Old Town; it terminates at the Sukoišan bus station northeast of the centre, which is another local bus or a twenty-minute walk from the Riva.

It is the cheapest way in by a wide margin, and it is the right choice if you are travelling light, alone, and not in a hurry. With two suitcases and a connection to make, the fifty minutes plus the onward leg is a different proposition.

The airport shuttle

Around €8 per person, roughly every thirty minutes in season. The shuttle runs between the airport and Split’s main bus station near the harbour, which is closer to the Old Town than bus 37 gets you and a reasonable walk to most central accommodation.

It is the middle option in every sense: quicker than the local bus, cheaper than a car, and tied to a timetable that does not care when your flight actually lands.

Bus and shuttle fares checked September 2026; both are set by the operators and change seasonally.

Taxis at Split Airport

There is a rank outside arrivals. Croatian taxis are metered and regulated, and Uber and Bolt both operate in Split, which makes the app price a useful check against a rank fare before you commit.

The weakness is the same as everywhere: apps depend on cars being nearby, and a late-evening arrival in October is not the same market as a Saturday afternoon in July.

When is a private transfer the right call from SPU?

The drive is the same length whoever does it, so what a booking buys is certainty rather than speed. Four arrivals where it is genuinely the better tool:

Anywhere that is not central Split. Kaštela, Trogir, Omiš, Makarska, a villa on the Čiovo side — none of them are served by the shuttle, and bus 37 only helps if you are going to Trogir.

Late or delayed flights. The buses stop before the last arrivals do. A booked driver is tracking the flight and waiting regardless.

Groups and families. Four shuttle seats is €32 and still leaves you at the bus station with the bags. The comparison changes shape entirely once you are more than two people.

Onward journeys the same day. Split Airport is a common entry point for Mostar, Dubrovnik and the islands. Those are drives, not bus rides, and the ones that cross into Bosnia carry a border the driver handles. Fares and journey times for every route from the terminal are on the Split Airport transfers page.

Going straight to Trogir

Trogir is 6 km from the terminal, about nine minutes, and its old town is a UNESCO-listed island you can walk across in fifteen minutes. A lot of travellers who assume they must start in Split find Trogir is quieter, cheaper, right next to the airport, and connected to Split by the same bus 37 whenever they want the city.

If you land late or leave early, starting or ending the trip in Trogir removes the airport run from the itinerary altogether — see Split Airport to Trogir and Split Airport to Split.

Which airport should you fly into for Split?

Split Airport, at 24 km, and nothing else is close. Measured by road to the city centre, the alternatives are:

Zadar is the one alternative that makes ordinary sense. It sometimes carries much cheaper flights, and 1h 45m is a real drive but not a lost day — worth it for a large saving, not for a small one.

Dubrovnik only works if the trip runs that way anyway. It is not just the 252 km: the road crosses the Bosnian Neum corridor, so there are border posts in both directions on what looks like a domestic drive.

Sarajevo is the surprise. It is closer to Split than Dubrovnik Airport is, and the flights are often cheap — but it is a mountain road with a border, and the time is nearly four hours.

For everything within Dalmatia — Trogir, Šibenik, Omiš, Makarska, the Split islands — SPU is the closest airport and nothing else comes near.

The short version

• Distance: 24 km, about 28 minutes by car, up to 45 in peak summer.
• Bus 37: €3, about 50 minutes, terminates northeast of the centre, buy from the driver.
• Shuttle: about €8, roughly half-hourly in season, to the main bus station.
• Taxi: metered; Uber and Bolt both operate in Split.
• Transfer: door to door, flight tracked, the only option that reaches addresses outside central Split.
• Trogir is 6 km from the terminal — four times closer than Split.