Chalfont St Giles to London City Airport Taxi

Getting from the Chilterns across to the Royal Docks

London City is the one run from the village where the route is a judgement made on the morning rather than a fixed line on the map. Every version starts identically: the A413 south out of Chalfont St Giles, through Chalfont St Peter, down to the A40 at Denham. From there the driver either stays with the A40 and runs east into London, which is the corridor this page quotes, or takes the M40 to Junction 1A and the M25 clockwise from Junction 16 round to the A406 North Circular, which feeds the same A1020 in the Royal Docks that the A13 does. Whichever way the traffic sends us, the last leg is the A13, and from there it is a case of following the signs for London City Airport. There is one terminal, on Hartmann Road about five miles east of the City of London, so nothing to get wrong at the end. Two things apply here that do not at the other four airports: the site is inside the London-wide ULEZ, where a non-compliant vehicle pays the daily charge, and the forecourt carries a short maximum stay, so it is a set-down rather than somewhere to sit and wait. The airport is outside the central Congestion Charge zone.

Around 67–92 minutes is the figure on this page, and it is the most changeable of the five because so much of it happens inside London. This is overwhelmingly a working route. It carries people from Chalfont St Giles to the short European business flights, and it is the obvious airport for anyone whose meeting is in the City itself, five miles up the road from the terminal. A good number of the passengers we take would otherwise drive to Chalfont & Latimer, ride the Metropolitan line in and change again for the DLR, which is a long morning with a laptop bag and a suit carrier. Firms at Chalfont Grove on Narcot Lane and professional households around the village green tend to run this as a repeat booking, and that pattern of travel suits monthly account billing better than paying trip by trip. Give us the flight number when you arrange the collection and we watch the inbound, which matters more here than anywhere, because the forecourt will not let a car linger.

Does the ULEZ apply on a Chalfont St Giles to London City trip?

The ULEZ covers every London borough, and London City Airport is in Newham, so the last part of this journey is inside it. Transport for London sets the standard at Euro 4 for petrol cars and Euro 6 for diesel, and a car that falls short pays £12.50 a day. The zone runs 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day. Private hire vehicles are not exempt unless they are designated wheelchair accessible, so compliance is a question for the operator, not the passenger.

The airport's own hours matter too. Flying stops on Saturday at lunchtime and does not restart until Sunday lunchtime, so a weekend trip from the village is usually a Friday evening or Sunday afternoon job. If you are on an early weekday British Airways, KLM or Luxair flight, London City offers an overnight bag drop from 4pm the day before for departures up to 10am, which can turn the morning run into a hand-luggage-only trip.

For a wider view of which airport suits which trip, our Chalfont St Giles airport transfers page sets out all five London airports from the village, and the London City business guide covers the day-return pattern in more depth.