Quick answer — the Prestia e Comandè airport bus
- What it is: the coach between Palermo Falcone Borsellino airport (Punta Raisi) and Terminal Fazello at Palermo Centrale, every 30 minutes, 50 minutes end to end, every day of the year
- Fare: €6.00 single and €10.00 return online or in presale; €6.50 and €11.00 on board. Children 3–12: €4.00 and €8.00. Under 3 free
- Hours: airport to city 05:05 to 01:05; city to airport 03:30 to 21:30. The 00:05, 00:35 and 01:05 runs carry a note allowing «about 10–15 minutes’ flexibility» for late flights
- Where: stops on the ground floor of the Arrivals hall, on the right; ten stops in town, Politeama at 40 minutes, Via Roma at 45
- The rail alternative: the Trenitalia regional from the station inside the terminal, €6.80, around 1h02 to Palermo Centrale, two trains an hour
Checked on 12 August 2026 in the operators’ own documents. Route detail: our Palermo airport to Palermo guide →
| Option | Journey time | Cost | When it runs | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prestia e Comandè bus | 50 min to Stazione Centrale, 40 min to Politeama | €6.00 online, €6.50 on board | Every 30 min, 05:05–01:05 from the airport | Via Libertà and the station area |
| Regional train | 51 min–1h09, most runs 1h02 | €6.80 adult, €3.50 age 4–12 | 2 an hour, 05:18–00:20 from the airport | Notarbartolo, slow-traffic days |
| Taxi | Not scheduled | Fixed €39, €44 or €50 by zone | At Arrivals with flights; 20 min if called | Hours with no bus |
| Taxi sharing | Not scheduled | €10 per passenger | 2 bays in Arrivals, from 4 passengers | Solo travellers who can wait |
| Private transfer | Door to door | Fixed price, confirmed at booking | On your flight, any hour | Night landings, groups, addresses off the line |
Sources, checked 12 August 2026: the official Prestia e Comandè timetable and its stop table; Trenitalia’s airport page and booking system; the airport’s bus and taxi pages. Confirm your own date: Sicilian timetables are seasonal.
| Option | Price | Journey time |
|---|---|---|
| Prestia e Comandè direct bus | €6per person | 50 min |
| Private transfer | from €144per vehicle · up to 3 passengers (minivan for groups) | 30–45 min |
| Prestia e Comandè direct bus — Direct and cheap — but fixed departure times and no door-to-door | ||
Private transfer
Driver waiting with a name sign, door-to-door, flight tracking — zero stress with luggage
Free cancellation up to 7 days · Secure online payment
What Prestia e Comandè Actually Runs
If you have typed the name into a search box, you are looking for one thing: the coach between Palermo Falcone Borsellino airport — Punta Raisi to everyone who lives here — and the centre of Palermo. That is the line, and it is the one the airport itself points passengers to for Stazione Centrale: every 30 minutes, 50 minutes end to end, every day of the year, holidays included, booking recommended.
The airport sits about 35 km from the city, a figure published by the airport operator and checked on 12 August 2026. What those kilometres turn into in minutes depends on the service and on where you get off, and the published times are all below. The same company also runs a seasonal shuttle to Mondello, a separate line covered further down.
Timetable: First Bus, Last Bus, and the Night Runs That Wait
The two directions do not mirror each other.
| Direction | First | Last | Frequency | Scheduled journey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airport → Palermo | 05:05 | 01:05 | Every 30 min | 50 min to Terminal Fazello |
| Palermo → Airport | 03:30 from Terminal Fazello | 21:30 | Every 30 min | 50 min to the airport |
Into town, the bus runs late: the last three departures from the airport are 00:05, 00:35 and 01:05, all marked on the official timetable with an asterisk reading «flessibilità partenza 10/15 min circa» — ten to fifteen minutes of flexibility. Those runs are built to wait for delayed flights, and it is in the timetable rather than left to the driver’s goodwill.
Outbound the line starts early and stops early: first 03:30, last 21:30. Nothing goes back to the airport after half past nine at night. One warning about the stop table, which carries two sets of figures: the minutes from departure — Politeama 40’, Terminal Fazello 50’ — and a worked example timing the 05:05 from the airport at Politeama 05:40 and Terminal Fazello 05:50, five minutes quicker at each. The 40 and 50 are what the company advertises, and they are the ones to plan on.
Fares: €6.00 Online, €6.50 on Board
| Ticket | Online or presale | On board |
|---|---|---|
| Adult, single | €6.00 | €6.50 |
| Adult, return | €10.00 | €11.00 |
| Child 3–12, single / return | €4.00 / €8.00 | No separate child fare on the flyer we checked |
| Under 3 | Free | Free |
Where to buy, as published by the company:
- Online at booking.prestiaecomande.it or in the operator’s iOS and Android app
- At the airport, the ticket office by the coach bays, daily 07:30–23:00; after 23:00, on board
- At Terminal Fazello (Stazione Centrale), daily 06:00–20:00, and from company sellers at the Via Roma 289 and Piazza Ruggero Settimo 18 stops, 04:00–17:30
- On board, cash or contactless card
The airport adds a desk in the arrivals hall. Either way nobody is stranded: you just pay fifty cents more at the door.
Every Stop Between the Airport and Palermo Centrale
This is the part search results skip. The bus is not an airport-to-station shuttle: it runs the length of Via Libertà, where a large share of the city’s hotels are. Minutes count from the airport departure.
| Stop, airport → Palermo | Minutes |
|---|---|
| Via Belgio 2 | 20’ |
| Via A. De Gasperi 82 | 25’ |
| Viale Croce Rossa 56 | 25’ |
| Via Libertà 106, corner Viale Lazio | 30’ |
| Via Libertà 80 | 30’ |
| Via Libertà, corner Via Notarbartolo | 35’ |
| Via Libertà 42 – Piazza Croci | 35’ |
| Politeama – Piazza Ruggero Settimo | 40’ |
| Via Roma 265 – Vucciria | 45’ |
| Terminal Fazello – Stazione Centrale | 50’ |
Pick your stop before you board. Terminal Fazello to the Quattro Canti is about 1.0 km, just under fifteen minutes on foot; from Politeama it is roughly 720 metres, ten minutes, to the Teatro Massimo (OpenStreetMap pedestrian network, 12 August 2026). So: Teatro Massimo or the north end of Via Maqueda, get off at Politeama; Ballarò, the Kalsa or the station, stay on to the end. Our Palermo destination page covers the neighbourhoods if you are still choosing.
Outbound the stops are Terminal Fazello, Via Roma 289 (La Rinascente), Politeama – Piazza Ruggero Settimo 18, Via Libertà at numbers 45 (Piazza Croci), 95, 171 and 203, then Viale Croce Rossa 125, Viale Strasburgo 7 and Via Belgio 25.
One caveat. The operator’s timetable page also publishes an alternative routing «during the closure of Via Libertà», skipping Via Libertà and Politeama for Via Puglisi Bertolino and a series of AMAT stops. It was still on the site on 12 August 2026 and carries no start or end date, so check prestiaecomande.it/orari-e-linee the evening before you travel.
Finding the Bus, and What If Your Flight Is Late
At the airport the stops are outside the terminal on the ground floor of the Arrivals hall, on the right, signposted. No numbered bay is published, so read the signs and confirm the destination with the driver.
If a delay makes you miss the departure you booked, the company’s FAQ is clear: the ticket stays valid on any run the same day, subject to available seats, and you should be at the stop ten minutes before departure. With the flexibility on the last three night runs, that covers most of what goes wrong on an arrival day — except landing after 01:05.
The Train: the Alternative on Rails
Punta Raisi is one of the few Italian airports where the station is inside the building — on the basement level of the terminal, per the airport operator, with no shuttle and no walk outdoors, every day of the week.
It is a Trenitalia regional with two trains an hour each way, dropping to one in some bands. Adults pay €6.80, children aged 4 to 12 pay €3.50, under-4s travel free with a fare-paying adult, and in groups of two to six with a paying adult the 12–18s get 50% off. We checked the booking system for 13 August 2026: Palermo Aeroporto to Palermo Centrale was selling at €6.80 in second class.
On the real timetable it takes about an hour to Palermo Centrale, not half an hour. On 13 August 2026 journey times ran from 51 minutes to 1h09, most at 1h02, leaving the airport at roughly :26 and :45 past the hour. The «little over half an hour» on Trenitalia’s page refers, by its own footnote, to Palermo Aeroporto–Palermo Notarbartolo. Fair enough: near Notarbartolo the train really is the fast option.
First and last on a weekday: from the airport 05:18 to 00:20; from Palermo Centrale 04:00 to 22:12. Fast «Genio express» runs call only at Notarbartolo, but on the day we checked there were two, at 05:20 (34 minutes) and 05:55 (36 minutes), both city to airport and none inbound.
The Biglietto Digitale Regionale is sold on trenitalia.com, in the Trenitalia app, at station ticket offices, at authorised travel agents and by call centre, up to five minutes before departure. On access, RFI lists three platforms at Palermo Aeroporto reached by level path or ramp, with a tactile route from the entrance and raised platform edges, but no lift; assistance runs through the Sala Blu in Messina, requested at least twelve hours ahead.
Bus or Train? The Honest Comparison
Price decides nothing: eighty cents apart. Nor time: 50 scheduled minutes against about 1h02, with the bus the one exposed to traffic. The real difference is the drop-off. The bus stops ten times, the length of Via Libertà and at Politeama; the train stops at stations. Via Libertà hotel, take the bus; Notarbartolo, take the train. The bus also runs later inbound (01:05 against 00:20) and starts earlier outbound (03:30 against 04:00), and the station, for all that it sits inside the terminal, has no lift.
Between 01:05 and 05:05 nothing is scheduled at all: the last bus has gone, the last train left at 00:20, and the first train out is 05:18. That gap is where the other options matter.
When the Bus Is Not the Right Choice
For one or two people with normal luggage, landing in daylight, staying between Via Libertà and the station, the bus is the right answer: buy the €6.00 ticket and go. It stops working in a few cases.
- You land in the small hours. After the 01:05 departure there is no bus and no train until 05:05 and 05:18.
- You fly out early or late. The first bus from Terminal Fazello is 03:30 on a 50-minute run; the last is 21:30, leaving late departures with the train (last from Centrale 22:12) or a car.
- There are three or four of you. Four adult singles online come to €24.00, and you still arrive at a bus stop rather than your door, carrying the bags.
- Luggage beyond a case each. The flyer we checked publishes no luggage allowance, so with a buggy or oversized bags, ask the operator before counting on the hold.
- Your address is not on the line. Those ten stops cover one corridor; Palermo is much wider, and the beach suburbs are another matter.
- Small children after a long flight. A kerbside wait plus a walk with a toddler is the part people regret.
That is where a private transfer earns its place, and only there: the driver meets the flight, the vehicle is sized to the bags, and the price is fixed and confirmed at booking rather than negotiated at the kerb — route detail in our Palermo airport to Palermo transfer guide. For everyone else, the bus.
Mondello and the Beaches: a Different Line
Prestia e Comandè also runs a direct seasonal shuttle between the airport and Mondello: published 15 June to 31 October 2026, daily, 40 minutes for the run. Fares match the city line — €6.00 single and €10.00 return over 13, €4.00 and €8.00 for ages 3 to 12, free under 3 — but here the on-board price is the same as online, cash or card. Passes: €30.60 for twelve rides a week, €97.60 for sixty a month.
| Direction | Departures (15 June – 31 October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Airport → Mondello (Parcheggio Galatea) | 08:00, 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00, 19:00, 21:30 |
| Mondello (Parcheggio Galatea) → Airport | 04:00, 05:45, 07:45, 09:45, 11:45, 13:45, 15:45, 17:45, 19:00 |
Those two rows are the whole planning problem. The first run from the airport is 08:00: land earlier and it does not exist yet. The last one towards the airport is 19:00: an evening flight cannot be caught on it. And the gaps are irregular, up to two hours — nothing like the city line’s thirty-minute cadence.
For Mondello Paese and the beach, get off at P.pe di Scalea Teti, one stop before the Galatea terminus. In season, between the shuttle’s departures, the way round is the airport bus plus AMAT’s 806, which leaves Piazza Don Sturzo, a few steps from the Politeama stop, on a 90-minute AMAT ticket at €1.40 (€1.80 on board), checked 12 August 2026. AMAT publishes the 806 as a summer line and puts out no timetable PDF for it: frequency and the first and last runs of 2026 are not published anywhere we could find, so check amat.pa.it before you build a plan on it. Full comparison in our Palermo airport to Mondello guide. And note that the shuttle is published only to 31 October 2026, with no renewal announced: reading this in winter, treat both it and the 806 as unconfirmed until the operators publish. The airport bus to Politeama runs every day of the year — it is the last stretch to the beach that needs checking.
Taxi and Taxi Sharing: What the Airport Publishes
Palermo publishes fixed airport fares: €39 to Viale Michelangelo / Viale Lazio, €44 to Corso Calatafimi / Corso Vittorio Emanuele, €50 to Stazione Centrale / Brancaccio. The page does not say whether they hold at night or include luggage, so confirm the total with the driver first.
Taxis stand at the exit of Arrivals in line with flight arrivals; if none is operating, the airport gives two numbers — Coop. Trinacria (+39 091 225455 or +39 091 6878) and Coop. Autoradio Taxi (+39 091 513311 or +39 091 8481) — with a wait of about twenty minutes. There is also taxi sharing from two dedicated bays at €10 per passenger, but the fare applies only once at least four passengers are gathered: good value at a busy hour, useless at a quiet one.
Going Back: Palermo to the Airport
The return catches people out, because the hours are not symmetrical. Buses leave Terminal Fazello from 03:30 to 21:30, every thirty minutes, scheduled at 50 minutes; boarding at Politeama or on Via Libertà, subtract that leg — then add a margin, because a printed schedule is not a guarantee on a road.
Buy in advance where you can: Terminal Fazello sells 06:00–20:00, and company sellers work the Via Roma 289 and Piazza Ruggero Settimo 18 stops from 04:00 to 17:30. For a flight after about 23:00, or before dawn, check the train (last from Centrale 22:12, first 04:00) or arrange a car the day before.
How We Checked This, and What to Distrust
Every figure above was verified on 12 August 2026 in the official Prestia e Comandè timetable PDFs and ticket pages, on Trenitalia’s airport page and booking system for 13 August 2026, on RFI’s station record, on the airport’s bus, taxi and car pages, on AMAT’s line and fares pages, and on OpenStreetMap.
One thing to distrust elsewhere: the city’s own tourism portal still calls the rail link «Trinacria Express» and quotes 45 minutes, €5.90 and a taxi «no higher than €45» — none of which matches Trenitalia’s €6.80 or the airport’s €39 / €44 / €50, and that brand name has gone from Trenitalia’s page altogether. Where an operator publishes nothing — a luggage allowance, an on-board child fare, the dates of the Via Libertà diversion — we have said so instead of filling the gap with a plausible number.
Keep Planning
Route by route, every option compared: Palermo airport to Palermo and Palermo airport to Mondello. For the city itself, and what is walkable from which stop, see the Palermo destination page.
Crossing the island? The Sicily hub pulls the regions together, and if the trip continues east there are pages for Catania and Taormina, where the airport connections follow entirely different rules.
