Faro Airport (FAO)
Airport · ANA Aeroportos
Faro Airport, known by its IATA code FAO, is the sole commercial airport serving the Algarve and the undisputed gateway for the vast majority of visitors to southern Portugal. Situated just four kilometres west of Faro city centre, the airport occupies a flat coastal plain on the edge of the Ria Formosa lagoon, and arriving passengers are greeted by the sight of salt marshes and barrier islands stretching towards the Atlantic. The airport is owned and operated by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal, a subsidiary of the French infrastructure group VINCI, which took over management of Portugal's airports in 2013.
The airport handles upwards of nine million passengers annually in peak years, with traffic overwhelmingly concentrated between April and October. The summer months see the terminal operating at or near capacity, with queues at immigration and baggage reclaim a familiar feature of the Saturday changeover rush. Despite periodic calls for expansion or a second terminal, Faro continues to operate from a single passenger terminal, Terminal 1, which underwent a significant renovation and expansion in the early 2000s ahead of Euro 2004.
Scheduled year-round services connect Faro to Lisbon, Porto, London, Manchester, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt, among others. TAP Air Portugal operates the domestic links, while Ryanair and easyJet dominate the international low-cost routes. During the summer season the timetable expands dramatically, with charter and scheduled flights arriving from across the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Scandinavia and increasingly from Poland and other central European markets. British visitors remain the single largest nationality group, reflecting the Algarve's longstanding appeal to UK holidaymakers and the sizeable resident British community.
Ground transport options from Faro Airport are straightforward. A rank of licensed taxis operates outside the arrivals hall, with fixed fares to central Faro costing around seven to ten euros. The Proximo bus service, line 16, connects the airport to Faro bus station and the railway station at roughly half-hour intervals during the day, though the service is sparse in the evenings. Several car hire companies maintain desks in the arrivals hall and vehicle collection points in the adjacent car park, and hiring a car at Faro Airport remains one of the most popular ways to explore the Algarve independently. Private transfer companies and hotel shuttle buses also serve the airport, with pre-booked transfers available to resorts across the region.
For those heading further afield, the airport's position roughly midway along the Algarve coast means that Albufeira and Vilamoura are around thirty minutes by road, Lagos approximately an hour to the west, and Tavira some forty minutes to the east. The A22 motorway, the Via do Infante, runs east to west behind the coast and provides fast connections in both directions, though drivers should be aware that it is a tolled road.
Faro Airport has no railway station of its own, which is a notable omission given the proximity of the Algarve railway line. The nearest station is Faro, served by regional trains to Lagos in the west and Vila Real de Santo Antonio in the east, as well as long-distance services to Lisbon. Plans for a rail link to the airport have been discussed for years but remain unfunded.
Facilities within the terminal include a reasonable selection of cafes, a duty-free shop on the departures side, ATMs, currency exchange, and a tourist information desk in the arrivals area staffed by Turismo de Portugal. Wi-Fi is free throughout the building. The airport is compact enough that most passengers can navigate from kerb to gate in well under an hour, though security queues during peak departure times can be lengthy.