Event & venue transfers
Fixed at £45 from Aldgate to London City Airport, about 8.4 miles and 25 min on a clear road. The price is locked when you book, not when you travel.
A taxi from Aldgate to London City Airport is £45 in a saloon, £55 in a 6-seat MPV and £60 in an 8-seater. It is about 8.4 miles and 25 min off-peak, or 45 min in traffic. The fare is fixed at the moment you book and covers tolls, the driver's waiting time and your luggage.
| Vehicle | Capacity | Fixed fare |
|---|---|---|
| Saloon | up to 4 passengers, 2 large cases | from £45 |
| MPV | up to 6 passengers, 4 large cases | from £55 |
| 8-seater | up to 7 passengers, 7 large cases | from £60 |
Per vehicle, not per person. Tolls, congestion and crossing charges are already inside the price, and it does not change on the day.
The forecourt pickup on Hartmann Road, a few steps from arrivals. City is small enough that arrivals to kerb takes minutes, so a booked car is usually waiting before you are through. Your driver sends the exact standing point and the registration before they set off, so you are not circling a car park looking for a number plate.
Address: Hartmann Road, Royal Docks, E16 2PX.
Parking at London City Airport is limited and the surrounding streets are metered or permit-only, so self-driving usually costs more in time than the fare saves. A drop-off and a booked return sidesteps it entirely.
The route from Aldgate is not complicated. The timing of it is. The run is the A13 east from Aldgate through Limehouse, then the A1020, which is about 8.4 miles and 25 min on a clear road.
What decides your journey time is the Aldgate gyratory and the A13 at Canning Town. That is where 25 min turns into 45 min, and it is why we publish a peak number instead of pretending every hour looks alike.
Twelve to fifteen minutes at night - one of the shortest airport runs in London.
We would rather the driver took a longer road than a slower one. Neither changes what you pay.
We would rather set this out than pretend the train does not exist. From Aldgate the public transport route is the DLR from Tower Gateway direct to London City Airport, with no change at all, and it runs about 22 minutes station to terminal. The fare is about 2.90 pounds.
The car is 25 min off-peak and 45 min at its worst, door to door, from anywhere in EC3, E1. On time alone the train is competitive, and if you are travelling light and alone it is a fair choice.
There are two catches the journey planner does not show. The first train is 05:30 from Tower Gateway and the last is 00:15, which rules rail out for a large slice of what London City Airport actually flies - the early bank needs you airside before the network wakes up. The second is luggage: the DLR is step-free and drops you at the terminal door, so this is the one London airport where the train genuinely handles luggage well - the catch is the changes to reach the DLR in the first place.
The money crosses over at three passengers. Below that rail wins; at three the Saloon works out near enough the same each. The Saloon is a fixed fare of £45, or about £15 each between three.
Going out, there is little to get wrong. London City is the most civilised drop-off in London: the set-down bay is a few metres from the door and the terminal is small enough that check-in to gate is genuinely twenty minutes. There is no set-down charge here.
On the return the pickup is the set-down bay outside the terminal doors on Hartmann Road, a few metres from check-in. The exact bay and the registration reach you by text before you land, so there is no hunting along a rank and no call to a switchboard.
Forty-five minutes of free waiting are included, which is ample - City clears an arriving flight faster than any other London airport. That means the car is waiting when you walk out, not summoned once you do.
We track the inbound flight number, so an early landing or a two-hour delay changes the driver's schedule and not your fare. City's runway closes to a strict curfew and the last arrivals run tight, so we track the inbound and hold the car rather than guess.
The cheapest seats leave early, which makes this a night-time route. A pre-dawn transfer behaves differently from the same trip at noon.
The roads are the easy part - Twelve to fifteen minutes at night - one of the shortest airport runs in London. What changes is everything around them. Night entrances replace main doors, barriers that are open by day are down, and a driver who has not been told which side of the block you are on will circle.
Which is why the booking form asks where exactly, not just where. The side entrance, the service road, the one with the step - that goes to the driver with the job. They message rather than ring a bell at four in the morning, and the free waiting time runs from the booked hour, not from whenever they happen to arrive.
We cover the whole of Aldgate for this route: EC3, E1. Homes, hotels, offices, hospitals and station forecourts all work as pickup points, and the fare from any of them is the one you were quoted.
Some addresses have a bay; most do not. Where there is not, the driver names a spot a few steps away that a car can legally stop in and messages you with it, rather than parking on a red route and hoping. It is a small thing, and it removes most of the stress from the first five minutes of a journey to London City Airport.
The classes differ by boot space far more than by comfort. A Saloon at £45 takes four passengers and two large cases. An MPV at £55 takes six and four large cases. An eight-seater at £60 takes seven and seven large cases.
The mistake is counting seats and forgetting the boot. Four adults with four large cases are an MPV booking whatever the seat count says. Tell us the bag count and we size it properly rather than sending a car that cannot close.
Child seats and boosters are free but need naming in advance, with the child's age, because the seat has to be fitted before the car leaves. Skis, bikes, instruments and wheelchairs all travel if you say so at booking. Parties over seven go in several vehicles routed together, so everyone reaches the same kerb within a minute of each other.
Most of this route's traffic traces back to: the Aldgate insurance and legal offices, the Petticoat Lane trade, Whitechapel Gallery visitors and the City fringe tech firms. It makes for an unusually flat demand curve, and a lot of 04:00 work.
If you are collected near the Gherkin, or anywhere else in EC3, E1, it is the same fixed fare. There is no inner and outer rate here. City of London and Tower Hamlets area, one price, quoted before you commit.
£45 in a saloon, £55 in a 6-seat MPV and £60 in an 8-seater. That is the fixed price, agreed at booking.
Door to door the car is about 25 min off-peak. The rail alternative is Aldgate to London City Airport plus the walk, which is competitive going out and considerably slower coming back.
The forecourt pickup on Hartmann Road, a few steps from arrivals. You get the exact point and the registration by text beforehand.
The driver waits. We watch venue finish times rather than working to a fixed clock, so a late curtain does not leave you stranded or cost you extra.
Card, bank transfer or a business account, before or after the journey. A VAT receipt is issued either way.
A 6-seat MPV is £55 and an 8-seater £60. Bigger parties travel in several vehicles routed together.
Yes, and it is the leg worth booking. The driver is in position before you come out instead of you joining the queue that forms the moment it ends.
A day ahead is plenty for a Saloon. Book earlier for an eight-seater or anything before 05:00, because those go first out of Aldgate.
That is the off-peak figure for the 8.4-mile run and it holds outside the rush. In the peak the same road is 45 min, mostly because of the Aldgate gyratory and the A13 at Canning Town. We set the airport cutoff from the worse of the two, not the better one.
Nothing happens to the fare - it was fixed when you booked. If the road goes badly wrong the driver re-routes, and on an airport run we would rather you left Aldgate half an hour early than argue about whose fault the A-road was. Give us the flight time and we set the pickup from it.
Card, bank transfer or cash, and nothing is added at the end. The £45 Saloon fare from Aldgate covers the driver, the vehicle, tolls on the route, any Blackwall or Silvertown tunnel charge, and the free waiting time. No meter, no booking fee at checkout, no surge at any hour.
Fares are fixed at booking and shown per vehicle. Distances and journey times are approximate and vary with traffic and the exact pickup address. Page reviewed 14 September 2026.