Bari airport: a railway stop inside the terminal

Bari Karol Wojtyla airport (BRI) has its own railway stop inside the terminal, and the Ferrotramviaria train from there reaches Bari Centrale in about 17 minutes.

The platform is 300 meters from arrivals

The airport stop has been in service since 2013, and a 300²-meter underground walkway joins it to the arrivals hall, so you reach the train without stepping outside. The operator is Ferrotramviaria, the company behind the Ferrovie del Nord Barese, and the line is fully electrified.

At the city end the train stops at the Ferrotramviaria station of Bari Centrale. A pedestrian underpass links that to the state railway station, so a connection to Lecce or Rome means walking under the tracks, not calling a taxi.

The same line also runs direct from the airport to Barletta, up the coast to the north, which spares you the trip into Bari if your base is there.

The fare and the timetable are not published

Ferrotramviaria does not publish the fare or the frequency on the page that describes the airport link. The airport operator's transport pages returned errors when we tried them, so they could not confirm anything either.

That leaves 17 minutes as the only verified number. Buy at the station machine or on the operator's site, and read the departure board for the next train rather than a timetable someone posted years ago.

BRI, in figures

Bari Palese Karol Wojtyla (IATA BRI, ICAO LIBD) handled 7,977,881¹ passengers in 2025, 9.7% more than in 2024, and ranks tenth in Italy. Aeroporti di Puglia runs it, and Brindisi too.

Its 9.7% rise was more than five times Brindisi's 1.7% in the same year. The full list of codes and totals is on the Italian airports page.

Brindisi, the other code in Puglia

Brindisi Papola Casale (IATA BDS, ICAO LIBR) recorded 3,444,438³ passengers in 2025, up 1.7% on 2024, 18th in the national ranking. It is the airport at the Salento end of the region.

The two airports are not interchangeable once you land. We have no verified journey time or fare for Brindisi airport to Lecce or to Brindisi station, so the comparison here stops at traffic.

Heading south to Lecce from Bari

From Bari Centrale a Regionale Veloce reaches Lecce in 1 hour 41 to 1 hour 43 minutes for 13.20⁴ euro, and a Frecciarossa takes 1 hour 25 (fares and times checked for September 15, 2026). Prices in euros.

Add the 17 minutes from the airport and the walk through the underpass, and BRI to Lecce by rail is a transfer you can do on the day you land. The rest of the city's connections are on getting to Bari, and the Rome line on Rome to Bari by train.

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