Event & venue transfers
St James's to London City Airport runs to roughly 11.6 miles and 30 min off-peak. We quote £55 and that is the number you pay, whatever the traffic does.
A taxi from St James's to London City Airport is £55 in a saloon, £70 in a 6-seat MPV and £75 in an 8-seater. It is about 11.6 miles and 30 min off-peak, or 50 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 £55 |
| MPV | up to 6 passengers, 4 large cases | from £70 |
| 8-seater | up to 7 passengers, 7 large cases | from £75 |
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. Being dropped at the door and collected at an agreed point removes the whole problem.
The route from St James's is not complicated. The timing of it is. The run is Whitehall and the Embankment east, then the Limehouse Link and A13, which is about 11.6 miles and 30 min on a clear road.
The part worth planning around is Parliament Square and the Embankment. That is where 30 min turns into 50 min, and it is why we publish a peak number instead of pretending every hour looks alike.
Quick along the river once Westminster empties.
Re-routing is the driver's job, not your cost. A fixed fare means the traffic is our risk.
We would rather set this out than pretend the train does not exist. From St James's the public transport route is the Jubilee line from Westminster to Canning Town, then the DLR, with one change, and it runs about 35 minutes station to terminal. The fare is about 3.40 pounds.
The car is 30 min off-peak and 50 min at its worst, door to door, from anywhere in SW1A, SW1Y. On time alone the train is competitive, and if you are travelling light and alone it is a fair choice.
Two things the timetable will not tell you. The first train is 05:30 from Canning Town 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.
Three is the number. Two travellers should take the train; three should not. The Saloon is a fixed fare of £55, or about £18 each between three.
The departure leg barely needs explaining. 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.
Inbound, look for the car at 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. You walk out to a car, which is the whole reason people book the return leg too.
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 classes differ by boot space far more than by comfort. A Saloon at £55 takes four passengers and two large cases. An MPV at £70 takes six and four large cases. An eight-seater at £75 takes seven and seven large cases.
Four seats does not mean four suitcases. 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.
A large share of London City Airport departures push people out of St James's in the dark. A pre-dawn transfer behaves differently from the same trip at noon.
The roads are the easy part - Quick along the river once Westminster empties. 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.
So we ask for the door, not just the postcode. 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.
The demand here comes from a handful of places in St James's: the Pall Mall clubs, the St James's galleries and auction houses, the Whitehall departments and the Mayfair hotel trade. It makes for an unusually flat demand curve, and a lot of 04:00 work.
If you are collected near St James's Palace, or anywhere else in SW1A, SW1Y, it is the same fixed fare. No zone splits, no awkward-address premium. Westminster City Council area, one price, quoted before you commit.
We cover the whole of St James's for this route: SW1A, SW1Y. 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.
If there is a legal bay, that is where the car waits. 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.
£55 in a saloon, £70 in a 6-seat MPV and £75 in an 8-seater. That is the fixed price, agreed at booking.
Door to door the car is about 30 min off-peak. The rail alternative is Green Park 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.
A 6-seat MPV is £70 and an 8-seater £75. Bigger parties travel in several vehicles routed together.
No. The fare is fixed when you book. Traffic, tolls and the hour are our problem, not a line on your bill.
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.
Card, bank transfer or a business account, before or after the journey. A VAT receipt is issued either way.
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 St James's.
That is the off-peak figure for the 11.6-mile run and it holds outside the rush. In the peak the same road is 50 min, mostly because of Parliament Square and the Embankment. 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 St James's 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 £55 Saloon fare from St James's 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.