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Options for the last mile - ground transport in the UK

One of logistics issues I keep having when planning day trips in the UK is how to find a good option for ground transport at an airport, especially when looking for an option that gives us the flexibility of touring around the area by car.

Taxis are the obvious but expensive option but don’t lend themselves to flexible touring, especially over multiple days.

Car rental seems to be often quite hard to come by, especially on weekends (Sundays). Most car rental companies are not open on Sundays and have only limited hours on Saturdays – some don’t even allow out-of-hours dropoff. Many of them don’t support driving licence checks ahead of time and/or delivery of a car to the airport, which is often the solution for this problem in Belgium, France or Germany.

Newquay, Carlisle, Gloucestershire airports are (from an aviator’s perspective) prime destinations for touring the respective area (Cornwall, Lake District, Cotswolds).

What do others do? I have now signed up to Enterprise Car Club which allows for cars to be booked online and unlocked using the app (a bit similar to app2drive in Germany) but it is a bit hit-and-miss depending on the location as not every location has Enterprise Car Club cars and one first needs to take a taxi from the airport to get to the car location (and back).

EGTF, EGLK, United Kingdom

Enterprise picked us up for free from the rather rural Spanhoe airfield (from their Corby location). I had no trouble getting it booked with my non-UK driving licence. Booked it online.

Gloucestershire is of course excellent because the car hire is on the airfield, and it’s a very good GA airport.

Andreas IOM

Enterprise pickup has worked for me at Carlisle,Hawarden, Eshott and Blackbushe, probably many others too!
Weekend problems can often be worked around by having the vehicle left with airport handling/ops, works at Newcastle.

Last Edited by PeteD at 19 Apr 09:05
EGNS, Other

This is something I’m very interested in.

A mile is easily walkable, but it might be down a busy road with baggage and screaming kids in 30+ degrees

I found the last kilometre easier in France, where the airfield is closer (literally and figuratively) to the town to which it belongs, plus the aéro-club is reasonably likely to offer a lift.

In the UK I’ve visited friends a few times who picked me up from the airfield, but VFR this runs the risk of standing them up.

I have a folding bike, but it’s too big to fit more than one in the back. If on my own it makes a considerable difference being approx 3 times faster than walking, with no time waiting for pickup.

Hiring a car does make sense, but adds a bit more admin. I’ve only done this once, at Propriano, and it worked very well. Never thought it do it in the UK… thanks for the idea. I’ll do a bit of research and try it.

EGHO-LFQF-KCLW, United Kingdom

Uber is very convenient because one single app/account basically works world-wide.

If you don’t care for style points and don’t have a large amount of luggage, a skateboard or an electric step can also be carried easily in the plane. Heck, even a monowheel/hoverboard is easy to bring, although these take a little more practice to ride.

Here in NL quite a few airfields actually rent bicycles right from the airfield itself. And depending on where you go there might be an electric bicycle, scooter, step sharing scheme in the area. Loads of these around, but each operator has its own app. Might take a bit of research.

Thanks for all the input and feedback.

alioth wrote:

Enterprise picked us up for free from the rather rural Spanhoe airfield (from their Corby location). I had no trouble getting it booked with my non-UK driving licence. Booked it online.

PeteD wrote:

Enterprise pickup has worked for me at Carlisle,Hawarden, Eshott and Blackbushe, probably many others too!

alioth wrote:

Gloucestershire is of course excellent because the car hire is on the airfield, and it’s a very good GA airport.

Thanks for the many recommendations regarding Enterprise. Agree that Enterprise is a good solution, especially given they used to offer pickups but unfortunately have stopped that now because of COVID. Similarly, the car rental place at Gloucestershire Airport and also at Oxford Airport have shut during the COVID period (until now). So my bugbear has been particularly with Sunday trips as pretty much all places are shut on Sundays – was that the case pre-COVID as well?

PeteD wrote:

Weekend problems can often be worked around by having the vehicle left with airport handling/ops, works at Newcastle.

@PeteD, would be good to understand how you pull that off. I have tried that with AVIS, Hertz and Europcar in the UK (not an issue in Belgium, France or Germany) and they do not seem to do that as they insist to meet me in person (as if that really matters – are they going to decide based on my looks whether to hire the car in the end? They can do DVLA check and the deposit authorisation ahead of time and completely remotely – feels like an anachronism in today’s digital world). And because of that it comes to being bound by their office hours. Do you use a company account?

BackPacker wrote:

Uber is very convenient because one single app/account basically works world-wide.

Fully agreed and works well really well for point-to-point, however not quite as well for touring, e.g. Lake District touring

EGTF, EGLK, United Kingdom

wbardorf wrote:

Agree that Enterprise is a good solution, especially given they used to offer pickups but unfortunately have stopped that now because of COVID

They picked us up during COVID – has this changed recently? It was last October when infections in the UK were higher than they are now. They had reduced the distance they would go for a pickup to ‘15 minutes’ but in a lot of England you’re less than 15 minutes from an Enterprise.

Andreas IOM

What do others do?

When touring, I try and fly to mid-size airports or larger so that I can get public transport out or pick up a car.

Mandatory handling fees and other fees may prove prohibitively expensive at some larger ones (e.g. Stansted). In this case I fly to the nearest GA reliever airport/airfield (e.g. Andrewsfield) or may examine other alternatives in the area (e.g. Southend).

If Andrewsfield only offers a taxi out of there, I then take this taxi to the nearest train or bus station to get into the city or to the nearest major airport, and then pick up the car that way.

Some rental companies may also be happy to drive and drop to a specific location for you – then the guy drives off in his motorbike after you arrive and sign off the condition of the car, so worth checking this out too.

Last Edited by James_Chan at 20 Apr 17:07

@PeteD, would be good to understand how you pull that off. I have tried that with AVIS, Hertz and Europcar in the UK (not an issue in Belgium, France or Germany) and they do not seem to do that as they insist to meet me in person (as if that really matters – are they going to decide based on my looks whether to hire the car in the end? They can do DVLA check and the deposit authorisation ahead of time and completely remotely – feels like an anachronism in today’s digital world). And because of that it comes to being bound by their office hours. Do you use a company account?

No, not a company account. Seems to depend on how good a working relationship between hire company and airport ops/agent, but always worth a try! Also helps if you are a regular customer of hire company maybe.

Last Edited by PeteD at 20 Apr 22:36
EGNS, Other

I have always just called a taxi.

Often not cheap… £60 from anywhere on the Isle of Wight to say Cowes. The best was €150 on Corsica from Bastia to the nearest available hotel

Currently I carry an FFP3 mask for any taxi ride.

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Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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