London International Airport (YXU): the ten-minute airport, and how a chauffeured pickup works there

Where it is, and how long it takes from where you are

YXU sits between Oxford Street East and Crumlin Side Road, north of the 401 and east of Highbury Avenue, beside Fanshawe College's campus and the Diamond Aircraft factory. From downtown it is fifteen minutes up Dundas or Oxford; from Western and Old North, twenty via Oxford Street; from Masonville, twenty; from Byron, Westmount and the west end, twenty-five to thirty on Oxford or the 401 and Veterans Memorial Parkway; from White Oaks and the south, twenty on Highbury; from Lambeth, thirty. St. Thomas is thirty-five, Dorchester and Thorndale fifteen, Ilderton and Komoka thirty. Those are off-peak figures; Oxford Street at 5 p.m. adds ten minutes and the chauffeur's pickup time allows for the hour.

Figures are LondonLimo.net planning ranges before HST; the engine prices the exact address. An executive SUV runs roughly a third more.

The terminal

One building, one level for passengers, one security checkpoint run by CATSA, a handful of gates, a single baggage carousel and a small arrivals hall with the car-rental desks and the exit to the curb. It is the least confusing airport in Ontario: you cannot get lost, the walk from the aircraft to the curb is two minutes, and the chauffeur standing by the carousel with your name is visible from the moment you enter the hall. Departures check in at the counters facing the doors; the airlines' bag-drop cut-offs are forty-five minutes for domestic and an hour for international, and the chauffeur's drop is timed for them plus the security queue on a busy morning. The airport's own site publishes the flight board and the parking; the chauffeur reads the board on the way.

Airlines and routes

Air Canada and its regional partners fly YXU to Toronto Pearson several times a day, feeding connections worldwide; WestJet flies to Calgary and Toronto and, seasonally, to the sun; Flair and Sunwing run winter leisure routes to Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean; and charter operators use the airport for sports teams and tour groups. Routes change by season and by year, and the airport's site is the authority. What does not change is the pattern: a 6 a.m. bank of departures to Toronto for the day's connections, an evening bank of arrivals from Toronto and Calgary, and the sun flights at civilised hours in winter. The 6 a.m. bank is where a booked car earns its keep - a 4:45 pickup that is actually at the door.

Where the chauffeur meets you

Inside the arrivals hall, beside the carousel, with a name board - or, if you would rather, at the curb outside the arrivals doors, where the chauffeur pulls in when you text. There is no long walk, no parking garage to cross and no pickup zone to find; the curb is thirty metres from the carousel. Meet and greet is the default at YXU because it costs nothing extra and the hall is small enough that the chauffeur sees you first. Details - the chauffeur's name, mobile and plate - arrive the evening before and by text when the flight lands.

Flight tracking and the included wait

Arrivals are tracked from departure and the chauffeur leaves for the actual landing; thirty minutes of wait is included on a domestic arrival and sixty on an international one, though at YXU bags appear within ten minutes and international clearance is quick. Delays are never charged. The evening arrivals from Toronto and Calgary are the ones that slip, and a chauffeur who is at the hall when the aircraft actually lands rather than when it was due is the point of the service.

Departures: the 6 a.m. bank and the sun flights

For a 6 a.m. Air Canada departure the pickup is at 4:45 from downtown and 4:30 from Byron; the chauffeur is at the door at 4:30, the bags go in, the cabin is warm, and you are at the counter with time for coffee. For a 9 a.m. Sunwing flight to Cancun in February with a family of five and ten bags, the SUV collects at 7:15 with the car seats fitted. Pickups are worked back from the flight time, the airline's cut-off and the season, and confirmed the evening before.

Connections through Pearson, and the alternative

Most YXU passengers are connecting at Pearson, and it is worth knowing both ways of getting there: the Air Canada flight, forty minutes in the air plus the transfer at Terminal 1, or the chauffeured drive, two hours door to terminal at a fixed rate. For an early international departure from Pearson, the drive removes the connection risk and the second security queue; for a same-day return, the flight wins. The Pearson page has the terminals; the comparison guide the arithmetic.

The general-aviation side

YXU's other half - the FBOs, the hangars, the flight school, Diamond Aircraft's delivery centre, the air-ambulance and medevac movements for the hospitals - is reached by a different gate, and a chauffeur meeting a private flight goes there, tail-number tracked, ramp-side where the operator permits. The private jet and FBO page describes it; a chauffeur who confuses the two sides of the airport is twenty minutes late, and ours do not.

Parking, the rank and the honest alternatives

YXU's parking is close and reasonable for a short trip, and if you would rather drive yourself for a two-day Toronto hop, do; the rank outside serves a solo traveller with a carry-on on a Tuesday afternoon perfectly well; the LTC bus along Oxford Street reaches the airport for a few dollars if you have the time. Where the chauffeur wins is the 4:45 a.m. pickup that must be there, the family with ten bags, the visitor who does not know the city, the late Calgary arrival with skis, the corporate traveller whose company wants the receipt on one invoice, and the passenger who simply wants the door held.

Winter at YXU

The airport is on the flat northeast edge of the city where the lake-effect snow off Huron arrives first, and January mornings can close the 401 west of the city while the airport stays open. Winter tires from November to April, all-wheel-drive SUVs on squall days, and a chauffeur who leaves fifteen minutes earlier when the forecast says so. De-icing delays on the 6 a.m. bank are tracked like any delay and never charged.

Fanshawe, the hospitals and the hotels

The airport's neighbours are its regulars: Fanshawe College next door, whose international students arrive in August and leave in April; University Hospital and Victoria Hospital whose visiting surgeons fly in for a day; the downtown hotels whose guests arrive on the evening Toronto flight; and the plants along Oxford Street East and Veterans Memorial Parkway whose engineers commute through YXU. A corporate account makes the run a standing line.

Other London-area airports

For the routes YXU does not fly, the chauffeured run reaches Pearson in two hours, Waterloo in an hour for Flair, Hamilton in eighty minutes for the leisure carriers, Windsor in two hours, and Detroit or Buffalo across the border for the US fares. The airports hub puts the planning figures side by side.

Three YXU bookings, as they actually run

A 6 a.m. connection, Monday. A business sedan from Old North at 4:35 for the Air Canada flight to Pearson and a 10 a.m. departure to London Heathrow; at the counter by 5. The return ten days later is met beside the carousel at 10:40 p.m.

A family to Cancun, February. An executive SUV from Byron at 7:10 for a 9:15 Sunwing departure, two boosters fitted, ten bags in the bay. The return is tracked and the chauffeur is at the hall when the aircraft lands forty minutes late.

A visiting surgeon, Wednesday. A luxury sedan meets the 8:20 p.m. Toronto arrival with a name board and delivers to the DoubleTree; collected at 6:30 for University Hospital; back to YXU Friday at 4. On the hospital's account.

Corporate accounts and the YXU standing run

For the head offices the YXU run is the commonest booking on a corporate account: the 6 a.m. Toronto connection for the executive, the evening arrival for the visitor from Calgary, the Friday departure home for the consultant who spends the week in London. Profiles hold the home address, the office and the preferred chauffeur; the assistant books with the flight number; the invoice codes it by cost centre. The chauffeur knows the YXU rhythm - which bank is late, which counter is slow - the way a commuter knows a train.

Students at Fanshawe and Western

YXU is the airport international students actually use: the late-August arrivals from Toronto connections with two cases each, delivered to residence at Fanshawe next door or across the city to Western; the December and April departures home; the parents who fly in for convocation. A booking made from Delhi or Lagos on the engine in the parent's own time zone produces a chauffeur beside the carousel with the student's name, which is the first kind thing a new city does. The universities and colleges page describes the calendar.

What YXU does not fly, and where to go instead

No transatlantic, no long-haul, no US business cities beyond the seasonal sun routes, and thin frequency outside the Toronto and Calgary banks: for London to Vancouver on a Sunday afternoon, London to Halifax, or London to New York, the answer is Pearson or Billy Bishop by road, Waterloo for Flair's routes, or Detroit for Delta's. The airports hub is the map; the desk will tell you honestly which airport suits the trip.

The airport's history, briefly, and why it matters to the drive

London's airport began as a Second World War training field and its runways and taxiways still reflect that; the passenger terminal has been rebuilt and expanded several times, most recently to add the international arrivals area that the sun flights use, and the general-aviation side has grown around Diamond Aircraft's factory and the Fanshawe aviation programmes. For the passenger the practical consequence is a compact, flat airport where everything is close, and for the chauffeur it is an airport that can be reached from every side of the city on roads that are rarely blocked. Wikipedia's entry has the detail for the curious.

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