The HAFILAT transport card in Abu Dhabi: price, top-up, how it works

From Abu Dhabi airport, the cheapest way to reach the city center is by bus. To take it, you’ll need a rechargeable card: the HAFILAT card.

And during our visit (September 2023), it wasn’t easy!

There’s a vending machine to buy the card, which costs 20 AED (the amount is pre-loaded onto the card), but:

• Card payment wasn’t available
• The only way is to pay in cash
• But you’ll need the exact change, as the machine doesn’t give change

Given that the airport ATMs only dispense 100 AED notes, it’s a bit of a hassle…

I ended up buying a bottle of water and asking for two 20 AED notes as change. The seller wasn’t happy, but oh well!

The bus to take is the A1, which makes several stops in the city center (Google Maps works well to find the stop closest to your accommodation). You can put your luggage in the bus’s storage compartment.

The airport <—> city center trip costs 4 AED (2 AED for trips within the city).

You need to tap your card when you board AND when you get off.

In the buses, women sit at the front, families in the middle, and men at the back (women can go to the men’s section but not the other way around). The drivers make sure this is respected; the first time, we didn’t pay attention, and the driver waited for us to move before starting. It’s a bit embarrassing, but it happens to tourists all the time, because this rule isn’t well indicated.

When you tap your card to get off, the screen shows your remaining balance.

You can also check your card balance by visiting this site: https://hafilat.darb.ae/AnonymousMedia/Default.aspx

To top up, you can do it via

1/ The website

It works when it wants… Really unreliable when we were there.

2/ Machines in the streets

There are two types of machines:

• Those that allow you to pay bills (especially transport card bills) but only for those who have a subscription.
• Those at some bus stops, where you can check your balance and add credit with cash.

3/ SPAR stores

Probably the easiest way, you just show your pass to the cashier, tell them how much you want to add, and that’s it!