Airports
Cardiff for the short-haul, Bristol for most of Europe, Heathrow for the rest of the world: each one priced from every zone of the borough, booked against the flight number, and driven by someone who has done the drop-off before. What each airport is like at the kerb is below, because that is where airport runs go wrong.
£48from the town centre, up to four
45 minutes from PontypriddOne terminal. We drop at the kerb outside departures; collections wait in the short-stay car park and the driver texts the bay. The car park fee is in the fare.
For a 6am flight we pick up at 3:45. The A4232 and the Barry road are quiet at that hour; the airport asks for two hours before a flight and we do not argue with them.
Quote from your zone£110from the town centre, up to four
1 hour 20 from PontypriddOne terminal with a paid drop-off zone, which is in the fare. Collections wait in the short-stay and we text the bay; there is no free waiting area at Bristol, so the forty-five free minutes matter here.
The M4 at the Prince of Wales Bridge and the A38 past Barrow Gurney are the two places it goes wrong. We leave twenty minutes earlier than the satnav says and have never yet had anyone miss a flight.
Quote from your zone£240from the town centre, up to four
2 hours 45 from PontypriddFive terminals; tell us which, and we check it against the airline on the day because they move. Drop-off is a paid zone at every terminal, in the fare. Collections meet at arrivals with a name board for £10 or in the short-stay.
Book it as early as you like and we fix the pick-up time the evening before once the M4 roadworks for the night are published. A driver who has done Heathrow forty times goes, not whoever is free.
Quote from your zoneHow a collection works
We take the flight number, not the time you think you will be out. The office watches it on the day and moves the driver with it. A two-hour delay costs you nothing.
From the wheels touching down, for passport control and the bags. After that, £5 a quarter hour, which almost nobody reaches unless the baggage belt breaks.
The driver waits in the short-stay car park and texts the bay number as you land. The car park fee is in the fare. Or a name board at arrivals for £10, which is worth it at Heathrow.
Airport runs are the same price at 3am as at 3pm, because most of them are at 3am. The 25% night uplift applies to local fares only.
When to leave
For a 6am flight from Cardiff we pick up at 3:45; for 7am from Bristol, 3:30; for 10am from Heathrow, 5:15. Rhodri sets the pick-up time the evening before once the overnight roadworks are published, builds in the margin the satnav does not, and rings if the time changes. In twenty-one years nobody has missed a flight in one of our cars, which is a sentence we check before we write it.
The office watches it and holds the driver back. You pay the fixed fare and nothing for the delay; the forty-five free minutes start when the wheels touch down.
Yes, in an eight-seater: £154 from the town centre with the bags in the boot rather than on knees. Booked the day before, with a fixed pick-up time.
Cars on the road twenty-four hours a day from the office on Gelliwastad Road, with the fare fixed before you get in. Ring 01443 496 0700 any hour, or book here for a set time, an airport run, an eight-seater or the ramp car and the office confirms within the hour in the day.