Before You Fly
Getting to the Airport Without the Last-Minute Panic
Trains, buses, taxis, ride-hailing and parking compared, plus how much time to allow before a domestic or international flight.
The journey to the airport causes more missed flights than security queues do. It is also the part of the trip you have the most control over.
How much time to allow
Airlines publish minimum check-in times, and those are minimums, not targets. As a working rule:
- Domestic flight, hand baggage only: arrive two hours before departure
- International flight: arrive three hours before departure
- Large hub airport, peak morning, or travelling with children: add thirty to sixty minutes
Then work backwards from that arrival time, and add a buffer to the journey itself. If the train takes 45 minutes and runs every 15, plan for an hour and ten. The cost of being early is a coffee. The cost of being late is the whole ticket.
Airport trains
Where they exist, rail links are usually the most predictable option. They do not sit in traffic, they run to a timetable, and the fare is fixed.
Two things to check: whether the service runs at your hour, since many airport lines stop overnight, and whether the station is inside the terminal or connected by a shuttle. A ten minute walk with two suitcases is a different proposition than stepping off onto the departures level.
Buy the ticket in advance if the airport line uses a separate fare from the city network, which is common.
Buses and coaches
Airport coaches are typically cheaper than rail and slower, sometimes considerably so at peak hours. They work well for early departures when rail has not started running, and for airports without a rail link at all.
Look at where the coach picks up. City centre stops are convenient, outer suburb stops less so once you factor in getting to them.
Taxis and ride-hailing
Convenient, door to door, and the option most exposed to traffic. On a weekday morning in a large city, a taxi can take twice as long as the train and cost five times as much.
If you use ride-hailing, check whether your airport restricts pickups and drop-offs to a specific zone. Many do, and the app will not always make that obvious until you are standing on the wrong level.
Book taxis in advance for flights leaving before six in the morning. Availability at that hour is thin.
Driving and parking
Long-stay parking is usually cheaper booked online than at the barrier, occasionally by half. Read whether the car park is on-airport or off-airport with a shuttle, and add the shuttle time to your plan.
Drop-off zones increasingly charge a fee, and some have very short free periods. If someone is driving you, know in advance which level you want and whether the free option is a slightly longer walk.
The night before
- Confirm the terminal, not just the airport
- Check for engineering works, strikes or roadworks on your route
- Set two alarms if the departure is early
- Have the address of the terminal saved offline
When the plan breaks
If you are running late, check in online and head straight for bag drop, which usually closes later than the check-in desk but earlier than the gate. Tell someone. Airport staff can occasionally fast-track a passenger with a boarding pass and a genuinely tight connection, though nobody is obliged to.
If you miss the flight entirely, contact the airline immediately rather than after you get home. Options narrow quickly, and our note on missed connections covers the general approach.
