Alilaguna: the scheduled airport boat

Alilaguna is the scheduled boat service linking Marco Polo airport to the historic centre, Murano, the Giudecca and the Lido: €18 one way, with one suitcase included in the price. The verdict is simple and has not changed in years: it is the cheapest way to arrive in Venice by water, and it is also the slowest. If you travel light and have no connection to chase, it is the right choice. If there are four of you with suitcases, the cost of a water taxi split four ways becomes competitive.

What Alilaguna is

Alilaguna S.p.A. is a private company running a scheduled public transport service on the water: it is the only private company doing so in Venice. Registered office at Isola Nuova del Tronchetto 34, VAT number 02967180270, share capital of 5 million euros.

It was set up in the late nineties by a group of tour operators who wanted a direct link between the airport and the city, starting with four boats and a single route, the one that is now the Red Line. Its shareholder structure and exact date of incorporation are not published.

On the fleet, the company’s own site contradicts itself: the fleet page says 79, the history page 80. Call it around eighty boats, of which eleven are hybrid electric, plus HEPIC, a hydrogen hybrid vessel. They are enclosed motor launches, low in the water, RINA-certified, with twin radios, radar and GPS, and largely accessible to passengers with disabilities: these are not open-deck vaporetti, and that matters for the view.

A corporate link worth knowing about. The Venetian agency that operates the shared water taxi transfers sold on the big platforms states, on its supplier profile, that it is owned by Alilaguna Lines. The same agency runs a well-known resale site that also sells Alilaguna tickets, and at San Marco Giardinetti there is a joint ticket office. Alilaguna’s own site does not mention the agency and we were unable to obtain a chamber-of-commerce extract: the legal form and the percentages remain unverified. The practical point is that the same group sells both the cheap boat and the taxi transfer that competes with it. Our reviews of the agency and of the resale site go into more detail.

The lines

• Blue — all year, 13 stops: Airport, Murano Colonna, Fondamente Nove, Ospedale, Bacini, Lido S.M. Elisabetta, Arsenale, San Zaccaria, San Marco, Zattere, Giudecca Stucky, Tronchetto, Ferrovia Santa Lucia. It covers the most ground, and is therefore the slowest.
• Orange — all year: Airport, Madonna dell’Orto, Guglie, San Stae, Rialto, Sant’Angelo, Ca’ Rezzonico, Santa Maria del Giglio. It runs through the Cannaregio canal and up the Grand Canal: if your accommodation is between Rialto and the Accademia, this is the one.
• Red — summer season only: Airport, Murano, Fondamente Nove, Ospedale, Bacini, Lido, San Zaccaria, San Marco Giardinetti.
• Green — an island excursion (Murano, Torcello, Burano), four and a half hours from San Marco Giardinetti or five and a half from Santa Lucia, about 45 minutes per island, multilingual commentary, minimum 4 participants. It costs €25 per person and is excluded from the passes.
• Pink — from Mestre, Terminal San Giuliano, to Fondamente Nove, run jointly with MARIVE.

Two warnings. Some ACTV lines (5.1/5.2 on the Lido–Certosa–Arsenale stretch, 13, 20, 22, NMU, NLN) are sailed with Alilaguna boats but require ACTV tickets, not Alilaguna ones: the livery misleads. And the “Yellow Line” that appears in old third-party guides does not exist on the current official site.

Fares

Time-limited passes, excluding the Green Line, cost €40 for 24 hours, €60 for 48 hours and €80 for 72 hours. A monthly season ticket for the whole network is €45, an annual one €495. Children under 6 travel free with an adult, and the return ticket is valid for 30 days. Holders of a Venezia Unica card pay €10 for airport ↔ Venice or the Lido, and €5 for airport ↔ Murano and the city routes: if you are staying in town for several days, it is worth reading our Venezia Unica review.

Luggage. Included are one piece of hand luggage — a bag, rucksack or laptop case — plus one suitcase up to 160 cm in total dimensions. Any extra or oversized piece, plus skis and musical instruments, needs a supplementary ticket of €4.00, bought before you board. Folded pushchairs and shopping trolleys travel free. It is a precise rule and worth reading before you set off: our luggage page compares the limits across the different options.

Timetables and real journey times

The Blue and Orange lines run roughly every 30 minutes during the day; the first departure from Marco Polo is reported at around 06:15 and the last at around 00:40. Alilaguna publishes its timetables only as seasonal PDFs: check the timetable page for your own travel dates rather than trusting a table copied somewhere else. If you land in the small hours, the water taxi is often the only thing still running: see our page on the night service.

On journey time, the official estimate and real experience agree: around 60–75 minutes to San Marco on the Blue Line. Some users on the Rick Steves forum have timed an hour and a quarter from the airport to San Marco and roughly an hour and forty to Zattere.

Strengths

• The cheapest way into Venice by water: €18 against the hundreds of euros of a private water taxi.
• One suitcase included, with no hidden supplements: that is not a given on the shared transfers sold online.
• Genuine coverage of the city: two year-round lines that take in Murano, the Lido, the Giudecca, the Grand Canal and the station.
• A partly hybrid and electric fleet, with one hydrogen vessel, and nearly all boats accessible.
• A reduced fare with the Venezia Unica card, which cuts the airport fare by well over half.

Weaknesses

• Slowness is the dominant complaint, and it is not just an impression: this is a scheduled service with a lot of stops.
• Enclosed cabins, low in the water, with poor visibility. One user on the Rick Steves forum dismisses it as “a smelly, noisy diesel tub that rides very low”.
• Crowding with luggage: at intermediate stops there are reports of passengers left to wait for the next boat, with waits of around half an hour.
• It leaves you at a scheduled stop, not at the door: with heavy suitcases you feel every bridge.
• Inconsistent company data, starting with the number of boats stated on two different pages of the same site.

What travellers say

On Tripadvisor the listing gathers roughly 2,683 reviews, but we could not verify the aggregate score at source: we would rather say so than repeat a second-hand rating. There is no Trustpilot profile.

The recurring themes match the criticisms above: slowness, poor visibility, crowding at peak times. The value judgement that comes up most often is a balanced one: it costs far less than a water taxi but takes far longer, and the real advantage of the taxi is not speed, it is door-to-door luggage handling.

The complaints about fare rises

After a resolution by the Città metropolitana di Venezia, the metropolitan authority, authorising a catch-up with ISTAT inflation since the last adjustment, single fares went from €4 to €5, from €8 to €10 and from €15 to €18; the monthly season ticket went from €36 to €45 and the annual one from €396 to €495. The local press reported protests from users and, measured over a longer comparison period, increases in monthly season tickets of up to 80%.

Opposition councillors have also challenged the fare increases on what they call a monopoly airport route, and the removal of certain integrated fares for residents that the mobility councillor is said to have committed to restoring. This comes from a single local source: an ongoing debate, not an established fact. No regulatory or antitrust proceedings are open against Alilaguna.

When to choose it, and the alternatives

Choose Alilaguna if there are one or two of you, you have one bag each, your accommodation is near a Blue or Orange Line stop and your flight time does not put you under pressure. At €18 it is unbeatable on the water.

Do not choose it if there are four or more of you — at that point a water taxi split four ways gets close — if you have a lot of suitcases, if you arrive in the middle of the night, or if your hotel has a water entrance the scheduled boat does not serve. The full comparison is on our water taxi, Alilaguna or vaporetto page; for those counting every euro there are also the express bus to Piazzale Roma and the ACTV vaporetti.

One last practical note if you buy online: some boat vouchers have to be exchanged in person at the office of the agency that manages the product, so you cannot just show your phone to the skipper and step aboard. Read the instructions on your voucher before you get to the jetty, and allow for the 7–10 minute walk from the arrivals hall to the dock.