R$5 bus link from W3 Norte/Sul straight to BSB T1
Line 31 Q. 716 North / W3 North South – Airport runs as a regular city bus between the W3 Norte/Sul corridor and Brasília’s Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport (BSB T1). It’s a standard urban bus, not an airport coach, but the routing is direct enough that locals use it instead of taxis when they’ve got time and want to pay city-fare prices instead of R$40–R$70 for a car.
The bus starts around the Q. 716 Norte area, then follows the W3 Norte/Sul spine before turning off toward the airport access road and finishing at the terminal bus bays near T1 arrivals. Expect it to feel like any other Brasília city line: front-door boarding, pay at the turnstile, and mixed crowd of office workers, students, and airport staff. Frequency varies by time of day, but you’ll usually see a bus roughly every 20–30 minutes in business hours.
Service is strongest Monday to Friday during office hours, roughly from around 06:00 to 20:00, tapering earlier at night and on Sundays. If your flight leaves BSB before 08:00, treat Line 31 as a backup, not your main plan, and check locally at a parada on W3 or with your hotel for the day’s first departure. For midnight arrivals into T1, assume the bus is either running rarely or not at all and budget for an app car instead.
At the airport side, Line 31 stops at the public bus area just outside T1 arrivals, a short walk of under 5 minutes from the baggage belts. Look for city buses signed with the route number 31 and the wording referencing W3 Norte/Sul or Q. 716 Norte. You pay the flat city fare in cash (small bills and coins work best); don’t count on cards or QR codes actually functioning on every vehicle.
Seats fill quickly between 07:30 and 09:30 and again between about 17:00 and 19:00 on the W3 section, so expect to stand if you join at a mid-corridor stop. Luggage space is minimal; one carry-on sized bag per person is manageable, but two large checked bags will be a headache in peak office traffic. If you’ve got bulky gear, it’s worth paying for a car from W3 instead.
Tip: From W3 Norte/Sul, be at your stop at least 15 minutes before you think you need to leave; treat the bus like a city line that might bunch, not a clock-precise airport shuttle.