Windsor International Airport (YQG) from London, Ontario: two hours to the end of the 401, with Detroit across the river

Who flies from Windsor, from London

Windsor's airport serves Windsor and Essex County first; from London it is booked for three reasons. A connection to Toronto on Air Canada or Porter when Pearson's morning is impossible and YXU's bank is full; a sun flight that Windsor happens to have and London does not that week; and, most often, as the airport for a Windsor or Essex trip - the Chatham-Kent and Leamington families, the Caesars weekend, the winery day - where the chauffeured run from London and the flight are two legs of one plan. For the cheap US fares, Detroit Metro across the river beats Windsor on every route, and the cross-border page describes how the London run continues over the bridge.

The drive: the 401 to its end

An hour and fifty-five minutes off-peak, west on the 401 past St. Thomas's junction, Chatham-Kent, Tilbury and the Essex County flatlands to the Windsor limits, then Highway 3 or the E.C. Row Expressway to Walker Road. The 401 west of London is the province's snow-squall corridor and closes a few times each winter between London and Chatham; Ontario 511 is read before every departure and the chauffeur leaves earlier or waits when it says so. Summer is easy; the fields are flat, the traffic is light, and the drive is a chauffeur's two hours.

The terminal

One building with the check-in counters, a single CATSA checkpoint, a departures lounge, and an arrivals hall with a carousel and a customs area for the sun flights; the curb is at the door. The airport's site publishes the flight board; the chauffeur reads it on Highway 3. It is a small airport that works, and the walk from the car to the gate takes five minutes.

Where the chauffeur meets you

Inside the arrivals hall by the carousel with a name board, or at the curb when you text; sixty minutes of wait is included on an international arrival for CBSA and the bags, thirty on a domestic one, from the actual landing. Delays are never charged.

Detroit Metro, twenty minutes beyond the bridge

Windsor is the reason a Londoner can use DTW: the airport is forty-five minutes from the Windsor end of the 401 by the Ambassador Bridge or the Gordie Howe bridge and I-75 or I-94, Delta's hub offers non-stops Pearson does not, and the US fares are often a fraction of the Canadian ones. The chauffeured run continues across the border in the same vehicle with a chauffeur licensed to cross; the cross-border page has the documents and the rate.

Windsor, Essex County and the reasons for the run

Caesars Windsor on the riverfront, the University of Windsor, Windsor Regional Hospital, the Stellantis plant, the Essex Pelee Island Coast wineries around Kingsville and Harrow, Point Pelee, the Leamington greenhouses, Amherstburg: the Windsor destination page covers the city and the county, and the airport run is often one leg of a Windsor day.

VIA Rail, and the honest alternatives

VIA Rail runs London to Windsor several times a day and is a good option for a solo traveller going from London's station to downtown Windsor with a carry-on; the airport is a taxi from Windsor's station. The chauffeured run wins door to door, with luggage, at 4 a.m., or when the trip continues to Detroit or the county. The comparison guide does the arithmetic honestly.

Corporate accounts and the Windsor day

London companies with Windsor plants and customers - automotive, greenhouse, logistics - use the run as a fixed line on a corporate account, often as a day by the hour with the chauffeur waiting in Windsor rather than an airport run at all; the hourly page explains it. A Toronto visitor flying into Windsor for a London meeting is met with a name board and driven up the 401.

Groups at Windsor

A Sprinter for fourteen at a planning figure of $600-700 one way takes a group to a Windsor sun flight or a Caesars weekend; larger groups are on the group transportation page.

Three Windsor bookings, as they actually run

A Toronto connection, Monday. A business sedan from Byron at 4 a.m. for a 6:40 Air Canada departure to Pearson and an onward flight to Denver; at the counter by 5:50.

A Caesars weekend, October. An executive SUV for four from Old North at 3 p.m. Friday to Caesars, and back Sunday at noon; two one-way fares, the show and the tables in between.

A Chatham family, Christmas. A luxury van from London to Windsor airport to collect grandparents off a Calgary flight at 10 p.m., then to a house in Chatham, and back to London; quoted as one plan with the stops.

The Essex County towns the airport serves

Windsor's airport is the airport for Chatham-Kent, Leamington, Kingsville, Amherstburg, Essex, Tecumseh and LaSalle, and a London chauffeured run frequently ends in one of them rather than in Windsor itself: grandparents collected off a Calgary flight and driven to Leamington, a family from Amherstburg driven to London for a hospital week, a winery weekend in Kingsville that starts at the airport. The engine prices every Essex address; the Windsor page describes the county.

Detroit's airports, in full

Beyond DTW, Detroit has Willow Run for charters and cargo, Oakland County and Coleman A. Young for corporate and general aviation; a private flight into any of them is a cross-border FBO booking with the chauffeur at the ramp. For the passenger the practical rule is that a scheduled flight means DTW, and the DTW page describes it.

Windsor's hospitals, university and the medical run

Windsor Regional Hospital's Met and Ouellette campuses and Hotel-Dieu Grace send patients to London's hospitals for treatment Windsor does not provide, and families from Essex County drive the 401 for it every week; a chauffeured run from a Windsor address to University Hospital or Victoria Hospital with the chauffeur waiting is an hourly booking a family in another city can arrange on a household account. The University of Windsor and St. Clair College generate the student calendar: airport pickups in September, departures in April.

The bridges, the tunnel and the Gordie Howe

Windsor has three crossings to Detroit: the Ambassador Bridge from Huron Church Road, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel from downtown to downtown, and the Gordie Howe International Bridge from the 401's end. The tunnel's height limit excludes Sprinters; the bridges take everything. The chauffeur checks the posted waits before choosing, and a London passenger continuing to Detroit is briefed on the cross-border page's documents the evening before.

Winter on the 401 west

The stretch from London to Chatham is where lake-effect snow off Lake Erie and Lake Huron meets, and it closes a few times each winter, usually for hours rather than days. The chauffeur reads Ontario 511 and the Environment Canada forecast the evening before, leaves earlier when a squall is forecast, and, for a morning flight, may suggest a Windsor hotel the night before through the travel desk. Winter tires from November to April; all-wheel-drive SUVs on the bad days; the fixed rate unchanged.

The general-aviation side

Windsor's FBO and the corporate hangars sit across the field from the terminal; a private flight into Windsor - common for Detroit-area business landing in Canada - is tail-number tracked and met ramp-side on the private jet and FBO service.

Booking it

Any London address and "Windsor International Airport" on the reservation engine; the fixed rate appears; add the return flight number and it is tracked. A run that continues to Detroit is booked on the cross-border service by the desk, and the rates page has every airport's figures side by side.

Three questions the desk is asked about Windsor

Is the Windsor run cheaper than Detroit Metro? Yes by about $80 for a sedan, because there is no border; but DTW's fares and routes usually outweigh it for a US destination, and the desk will compare both for the week you want. Can we stop in Chatham on the way? Yes, as a stop priced on the engine. Is there a hotel near the airport for a 6 a.m. flight? Several along Walker Road and Howard Avenue, booked through the travel desk with the chauffeur at 4:30.

Point Pelee, Pelee Island and the summer run

In summer the Windsor run doubles as the Point Pelee and Pelee Island run: Canada's southernmost point, the bird migration in May, the ferry from Leamington or Kingsville to the island and its winery, and the beaches along the Erie shore. A family day from London by the hour, or a weekend with the travel desk's hotel, starts on the same 401 as the airport run and the wine tour page has the Essex estates.

Corporate accounts and the automotive corridor

Windsor's automotive plants and the suppliers along the 401 corridor between London and Windsor - Tilbury, Chatham, Wallaceburg, Leamington - generate a business travel pattern that a corporate account turns into standing bookings: engineers to the Windsor plant Monday and back Thursday, Michigan visitors collected at Windsor airport and driven to a London supplier, a plant tour by Sprinter for a customer group. The corporate chauffeur service page describes the account.

The chauffeur's knowledge of the airport

The Walker Road approach and the E.C. Row exit that avoids the Howard Avenue lights, the door the sun flights use after customs, the curb where a car may stand for two minutes, and the counter hours for the 6 a.m. Toronto bank: a small airport rewards a chauffeur who knows it, and the text on landing tells you where to look.

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