Airport limo service on RutzLimo.com is a pre-booked chauffeured transfer to or from any of the 346 international airports on the reservation engine. You add the flight number, the pickup follows the airline's live arrival time, waiting time is counted from the moment the aircraft lands, and the chauffeur meets you at the pre-arranged terminal door - or inside the hall with a name board if you choose that add-on. The fare is fixed before you confirm and includes tolls, airport fees and gratuity. Book an airport transfer now or read how it works.
Why the airport transfer is the journey that has to work
Every other journey has slack in it. A dinner can start ten minutes late; a meeting can be moved. The airport transfer has a hard edge on one side - a departure that will leave without you - and a soft, unpredictable edge on the other, an arrival that may land forty minutes early into a headwind or two hours late behind a thunderstorm. A car service that treats it as an ordinary point-to-point job fails in both directions: it books the departure too tight and it charges you for the arrival's delay.
RutzLimo.com treats the airport transfer as its own product, with rules built around how airports and airlines actually behave. Those rules are the substance of this page.
Departures: getting you to the terminal on time
For a departure the reservation asks for the flight as well as the address, and the engine suggests a pickup time built from three things: the airport's recommended check-in window, which for international departures from most major hubs is three hours before scheduled departure, the drive time at that hour of that day on that route, and a margin for the things that happen on the way. You can override the suggestion, and frequent flyers with fast-track and lounge access usually do, but the suggestion is there so that a first-time visitor to a city does not learn the hard way that the airport motorway is a car park at 5 p.m.
The chauffeur confirms the pickup the evening before, arrives ten minutes early, loads the luggage, and drops you at the departures kerb of the correct terminal - the engine holds the terminal data for each airline at each airport, so "Terminal 3" is not something you need to know. At airports where the departures forecourt is restricted, the chauffeur uses the designated drop-off zone and walks the bags to the door where that is permitted.
Arrivals: flight tracking, waiting time and where the chauffeur stands
An arrival transfer begins the moment the reservation has a flight number. From then on the chauffeur's dispatch system follows the airline's live data: if the flight is early the car is called forward; if it is delayed the pickup moves with it; if it is diverted, dispatch contacts you and re-plans. You do nothing.
Waiting time begins when the aircraft actually lands, not at the scheduled arrival time, and the complimentary allowance is set by airport and shown on the confirmation - typically sixty minutes on international arrivals, to allow for immigration and baggage, and thirty on domestic. Beyond the allowance, waiting is charged at the hourly rate in fifteen-minute increments, and dispatch will tell you before it starts. In practice most passengers walk out well inside the allowance.
Where the chauffeur meets you depends on the airport and on what you chose at booking. The standard, included in every fare, is a pre-arranged pickup at the terminal door: the chauffeur is outside the arrivals exit with the car, or in the pre-booked car-service zone the airport operates, and you receive the exact door or zone by message as you taxi in. The add-on is a meet-and-greet inside the arrivals hall: the chauffeur waits beyond customs with a name board, takes the luggage trolley, and walks you to the car. It costs more because the chauffeur pays to park and spends longer on the job, and it is worth it for first-time visitors, families with children, older travellers and anyone who would rather not read signs after a night flight.
Each airport publishes its own rules for pre-arranged car services, and our chauffeurs follow them precisely; that is why the meeting point is a specific door or zone rather than "outside". The operators' own pages are the authoritative source: Toronto Pearson, Heathrow, JFK, Changi and Paris-Charles de Gaulle each describe where limousine and car-service passengers are collected.
The airports on the engine
The reservation engine holds terminal, zone and fee data for 346 international airports: the international airports of all 107 countries on the engine, from Toronto and Mexico City through London, Paris, Frankfurt, Dubai, Doha, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney, plus the 25 largest United States hubs. The full list, grouped by region, is on the airports page, and every one of them can be booked instantly on any page of this site.
If your airport is not on the list, it can still be booked. Enter the airport as an address and dispatch will confirm the pickup arrangements and the fare by message, usually within the hour. Private-jet terminals and FBOs are a separate product with ramp-side pickup, described on the private jet and FBO transfers page, and cruise terminals on the cruise port transfers page.
Choosing the vehicle for an airport transfer
The arithmetic of an airport transfer is luggage. Three adults with three large checked cases is the honest limit of an executive sedan; most couples returning from two weeks away with two large cases, two carry-ons and duty-free are more comfortable in an executive SUV, and a family of four with a pushchair needs the SUV or the executive van. Golf clubs, skis and bicycle boxes go in the SUV or the van. Groups of eight to fourteen with luggage take the Sprinter, and larger groups the coaches - all in the fleet guide. The IATA baggage guidance is a useful reference for what "large" means on the airlines you fly.
Child seats - infant, toddler and booster - are fitted at no charge in every class, but must be on the reservation. At most airports the chauffeur can also meet unaccompanied minors at the airline's handover point with the documentation the airline requires; tell dispatch when you book.
What an airport limo costs, and what is in the fare
The engine shows a fixed fare for the exact route, vehicle and time, and that fare includes the airport's access or pickup fee, tolls on the route, parking for a meet-and-greet, and a standard gratuity. There is no surge on the arrival wave, no meter on the diversion and nothing to settle at the kerb. Fares for the same airport differ by destination zone and by vehicle class; the chauffeur cost guide gives the published airport-transfer benchmarks for a dozen gateway cities and explains how they compare with taxis and ride-hail, and the chauffeur vs Uber Black page is the honest side-by-side for the airport specifically.
Connections, layovers and multi-leg itineraries
A layover of six hours or more in a gateway city is long enough to leave the airport, and a chauffeur who collects you at arrivals, takes you to lunch or a meeting and returns you to departures is a common reservation; book it as an hourly engagement so the car waits. Itineraries with several cities - Toronto to London to Dubai over a week - are handled by the global chauffeur service on one account, with a transfer at each end of each flight and the profile travelling with you. Corporate travel managers hold all of this on a corporate account with one monthly invoice.
Delays, cancellations and the things that go wrong
If the flight is cancelled, tell us and there is no charge for the transfer. If you miss the flight and rebook, the reservation moves with you. If you clear customs faster than expected, the chauffeur is already there because the pickup was called forward when the aircraft landed. If your luggage does not arrive and you spend forty minutes at the airline's desk, the waiting allowance is usually still enough, and if it is not, dispatch will tell you before charging. If you cannot find the chauffeur, the number on your confirmation reaches dispatch, who can see both of you on the map. The full terms set out the cancellation windows by city.
Airport limo service at the world's busiest hubs
The rules of the transfer are the same everywhere, but the geography is not, and a few of the hubs deserve a note.
Toronto Pearson (YYZ) has two terminals and a pre-arranged limousine pickup area at each; the chauffeur waits at the door dispatch specifies for your terminal and the car is called forward from the holding lot when you message that you have your bags. London Heathrow (LHR) has five terminals and a strict forecourt regime, so the standard pickup is from the short-stay car park adjacent to the terminal, a two-minute walk with the chauffeur carrying the bags. New York JFK and Newark (EWR) use designated for-hire vehicle areas by terminal, and the chauffeur meets you at the arrivals door and walks you across. Dubai (DXB) operates two very large terminals; the chauffeur meets you in the arrivals hall by default because the forecourt is not somewhere to wait. Singapore Changi (SIN) and Hong Kong (HKG) are the easiest airports in the world for a car service, with limousine lounges and clear pickup zones. Los Angeles (LAX) has moved all ride-hail and taxi pickups to a remote lot, but pre-booked chauffeured cars still collect at the terminal on the upper level, which is one of the strongest arguments for booking one. The airport operator pages linked above are the current source for each, and dispatch sends the exact instruction for your terminal with the confirmation.
Airport transfers for groups, crews and events
A team travelling to a conference, a wedding party arriving over two days, a sports squad, a film crew with cases of equipment: each is an airport transfer with the vehicle scaled up, and the same flight-tracking and waiting rules apply. The Sprinter takes up to fourteen with luggage, the minicoach takes twenty-eight, and a coordinator from the event transportation team meets larger arrivals in the hall and marshals the group to the vehicles. Staggered arrivals on several flights are booked as one reservation with several pickups, and a chauffeur or coordinator stays at the airport until the last flight is in.
The corporate view of the airport transfer
For a travel manager the airport transfer is the line item that generates the most complaints when it goes wrong and the least attention when it goes right. A corporate account makes it go right by default: traveller profiles with vehicle preferences, standing instructions on meet-and-greet, a duty-of-care record of every pickup, and one invoice a month. The Global Business Travel Association publishes guidance on ground-transportation duty of care, and our account managers work to it.
Book an airport transfer - flight-tracked, fixed fare, 346 airports
