Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport (OTP): A Traveler's Guide
Henri Coandă sits about 16.5 km north of central Bucharest, and Terminal 1 handles the great majority of flights, with a smaller Terminal 2 used for select routes. Since Romania joined "Air Schengen" on March 31, 2024, flights to and from other Schengen countries skip passport control entirely — you walk straight from the gate to landside, with only occasional random checks by border police. Flights to non-Schengen countries (UK, US and similar) still go through standard passport control, so budget a little more time if you're headed somewhere outside the zone.
Getting into the city
The cheapest and often fastest option is the direct train to Gara de Nord, Bucharest's main railway station — about 25 minutes, roughly 1.30 EUR, running close to hourly through the day. From Gara de Nord you can pick up Metro lines M1 or M4 to continue to your final stop. The express bus (currently numbered in the 780s) runs to Piața Unirii in the city center for about 0.60 EUR, though it takes 40–50 minutes and is slower in traffic. Taxis queue at official ranks in the arrivals hall — use the order screens there rather than freelance drivers waiting outside, since unlicensed taxis are a recurring complaint at this airport; expect 80–100 RON (16–20 EUR) and 30–45 minutes depending on traffic. Bolt and Uber both operate and tend to run a bit cheaper than a taxi — Bolt is the more commonly used of the two locally.
Practical tips
If you're catching a connecting flight within Schengen, don't be surprised by how fast you're through — there's essentially no passport queue, so don't linger over coffee if your gate is showing final boarding. Going the other direction (arriving from outside Schengen), lines at passport control can bunch up during evening arrival banks, so building in some buffer before a tight connection is wise. SIM cards (Orange, Vodafone, Digi) are sold in the arrivals hall if you need data the moment you land, and it's genuinely cheap by EU standards. For a layover, the walk-through duty-free and the airport's dining options in Terminal 1 are enough to fill a few idle hours comfortably.