The Henri Coanda Airport is serviced by train, buses and taxis. The train service is called Henri Coanda Expres. Train tickets can be bought inside the airport at CFR ticket counter. The train station is, however, 2 km away from the airport, but there is a shuttle bus that transfers the passengers to it. The shuttle bus transfer IS INCLUDED in the train ticket. Once you reach the train station, there is another 30 minutes until your reach the main train station Gara de Nord. The train station is rather isolated, and is just a single platform, an island of only a few lights in an ocean of darkness. The total duration of the trip, from airport to the Gara de Nord train station is approximately 50 minutes. From the Gara de Nord train station, you can take public transport (Metro and buses) or you can depart by train towards other cities in Romania. The train service is available between 6 AM and 11 PM. Timetable for Henri Coanda Express is avalible here:
There are just two bus lines to the city, bus 780 which goes to the main train station Gara de Nord and bus 783 which heads to downtown; they run daily (including on weekends and holidays) from 5:15 - 5:30 AM till 11:00PM. A one way trip with any of them costs 3.5 lei, but for the 783 bus the cheapest option available is a two-trips card which costs 7 lei. Tickets and cards can only be purchased from the booth in front of either the Arrivals or Departures terminals and not from from the driver. Remember to validate your ticket on board the bus. The bus is far superior to the train in terms of both time and cost.
During the night, only taxis are available from Henri Coanda Airport. The only taxi service allowed to offer transfers from the airport is Fly Taxi (the airport has auctioned the service), all others being pirate taxi services. Up until a few years ago, there was a taxi mafia running there during the night, charging ?20-30 to get you to Bucharest (when normally the price would be around ?10). Sometimes this still happens, therefore, look for the authorized taxi service, do not bargain, demand that the meter be used, and look for the tariff on the meter (for extra-urban trips, current tariffs are around 2-2.2 lei/km (0.6-0.7 ?/km) and the distance to any place within the city is 12-20 km). Fly Taxi's rate 3.5 lei/km (2/2009). Remember that for ?30 you can get anywhere in the country by bus and train, so think twice before you decide to pay a taxi driver the same for a drive of less than 10 km.
Situated in Bucharest proper, Aurel Vlaicu airport is more easily accessible, either by taxi or public transport. Taxi fares should be 1.4-1.6 lei/km (0.4-0.5 ?/km). Do not bargain, demand that the meter be used, and remember that downtown Bucharest is about 6-10 km away and there is no place in Bucharest further than 20-25 km. Bus lines 131 and 301 connect it with Piata Romana in downtown Bucharest and bus line 205 with the Gara de Nord train station. Bus tickets must be purchased in the big booth at the bus terminal, and cannot be bought from the driver.