Air

The major gateway to Portugal is Lisbon's Aeroporto Humberto Delgado (LIS), located about 8 km (5 miles) northeast of the city center. The quickest way to get downtown is the Lisbon Metro, which departs every few minutes from Terminal 1. The 16-minute ride costs €1.50. Two different AeroBus routes depart every 20 minutes from outside the Arrivals Terminal and arrive downtown in about 45 minutes. The fare is €4. A third route runs on weekends and takes about 25 minutes to reach Sete Rios bus station.

Porto's Aeroporto Francisco Sá Carneiro (OPO) is handling more and more international flights. Like Lisbon, Porto has an efficient Metro running to the city center. The trip takes 30 minutes and costs €2. Local bus companies shuttle passengers between the airport and downtown for about €2.80. The Aeroporto de Faro (FAO) handles the largest number of charter flights because of its location in the popular tourist destination of the Algarve. Several buses make the 20-minute trip to downtown Faro and charge about €2.25.

The flying time to Lisbon is 6½ hours from New York on a direct flight; it's 10 hours from Chicago and 15 hours from Los Angeles on indirect flights. The flight from London to Lisbon is just under 3 hours.

The organization that oversees Portugal's airports, Aeroportos de Portugal (ANA), has a handy website with information in English.

Flights

TAP Air Portugal, the country's national airline, has daily nonstop flights to Lisbon from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and several nonstop flights during the week from New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport to Lisbon and Porto. United's daily nonstop flights between Newark and Lisbon are scheduled to provide convenient connections from destinations elsewhere in the eastern and southern United States.

British Airways, TAP, Ryanair, and easyJet have regular nonstop flights from the United Kingdom to several destinations in Portugal. From Spain, TAP, Iberia, Vueling, and easyJet have daily Madrid–Lisbon flights and Ryanir has flights twice weekly; TAP, Vueling, and Iberia fly daily nonstop from Barcelona to Lisbon. From the Netherlands, KLM, TAP, easyJet, and Transavia have frequent nonstop flights from Amsterdam to several Portuguese cities.

Domestic air travel can be a good value between major cities, such as Lisbon and Porto or Lisbon and Faro, though prices tend to increase during the busy summer months.