Airport transfers at every Canadian airport

The service the whole site is built around

An airport transfer is a point-to-point chauffeured journey between an airport and an address, priced as a fixed fare for the vehicle class you choose, with the flight watched from the moment it departs. It is the product people book most, in every one of the eighteen cities on this site, and it is the one where the difference between a pre-booked chauffeur and a walk-up option is largest - because the airport is where luggage, fatigue, queues and surge pricing all meet at the same curb.

The transfer works identically at Toronto Pearson, Vancouver, Montréal-Trudeau, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Halifax Stanfield, Québec City and Victoria, and at the fifteen regional and cross-border airports listed on the airports page. What changes from airport to airport is the layout - where the pre-arranged pickup curb is, how far the international hall is from the domestic one - and each airport's own page covers that.

Arrivals: what happens between the gate and the car

Give us the flight number when you book. From then on the pickup follows the airline's live arrival time, not the time on the ticket. If the aircraft is early the chauffeur is early; if it is late the chauffeur's schedule moves; if it is diverted, dispatch calls you before you have found the airline desk.

About twenty minutes before the aircraft lands, your phone receives a text with the chauffeur's name, the vehicle plate and the meeting point. The meeting point is the airport's designated pre-arranged pickup area outside arrivals - a specific curb or lane at every Canadian airport, separate from the taxi rank and the ride-app zone - and the chauffeur is standing at it before the doors open. Sixty minutes of waiting are included on an international arrival and thirty on a domestic one, counted from touchdown, so a long CBSA queue or a slow carousel costs nothing.

If you would rather be met inside, tick meet and greet at booking. The chauffeur then waits in the arrivals hall with a name board, takes the luggage and walks you to the car. It is a paid add-on and it is the right choice for a first visit to the city, a parent travelling alone, an unaccompanied teenager, a client the company wants to impress, or anyone landing at Pearson for the first time and facing the walk from Terminal 1's international hall.

Departures: the pickup that gets you there on time

For a departure the chauffeur is at the door at the booked time, and the booked time is worked backwards from the flight: the airport's recommended check-in window, plus the drive at that hour, plus a margin for the 401 at 7 am or the Sea-to-Sky in a snowstorm. The engine suggests a pickup time when you enter the flight; the city pages give the local traffic notes that inform it. For an early departure - the 6 am to Toronto from Halifax, the 6:30 to Vancouver from Kelowna - the chauffeur is outside at 4 am when the apps in a smaller city are empty, which is a large part of why people book us.

Which terminal, which curb

Pearson has two terminals and the pre-arranged limousine curbs are on the arrivals level of each; Air Canada and Star Alliance use Terminal 1, most other carriers Terminal 3. YVR separates domestic and international arrivals within the main terminal, with the South Terminal for the floatplanes and the small regional carriers. Trudeau is a single terminal with the international and US-preclearance areas at opposite ends. Calgary's domestic and international terminals are connected but a long walk apart. The rest are single-terminal airports where the curb is a short walk from any carousel. Each airport's page on this site describes the exact arrangement, and the chauffeur's text names the curb by the airport's own signage.

Vehicle choice for the airport

The mistake is luggage, not passengers. An Executive Sedan takes three passengers with two large suitcases and two carry-ons; a third large case will not fit and cannot legally ride on the back seat. A family of four with four cases needs the Luxury SUV, and so does a golfer or a skier with a bag that will not fold. Six or more travelling together are cheaper per seat in an Executive Sprinter than in two cars. The engine enforces the limits so the car that arrives can take what you have; the fleet page shows the capacities.

Child seats - infant, convertible or booster - are fitted at no charge when noted at booking. Every province requires a child restraint by age, height or weight, and a ride-app car will not have one; ours will.

What it costs, and why the fare is what it is

The fare is fixed by the exact pickup and drop-off address and the vehicle class, and it is shown before you book. It does not change with the time the aircraft actually lands, the route the chauffeur takes, the weather or demand. It includes the waiting time, the flight tracking, the chauffeur's help with luggage, and taxes. It does not include tolls where they apply - the 407 across the top of Toronto is the usual one, and it is shown at booking - or airport fees at the few airports that levy them on commercial pickups. Meet and greet is an add-on. Gratuity is not added; if you wish to tip, you may.

Distance is the main driver of the fare and the airport-to-downtown distances vary more than people expect: eight kilometres at Winnipeg, thirteen at Ottawa and YVR, twenty-seven at Pearson and Edmonton, thirty-five at Halifax Stanfield. The route board on the cities page gives every city's figure.

Group and family arrivals

A group landing on the same flight - a sports team, a wedding party, a company offsite - is one booking with one vehicle rather than a scramble for four taxis. The Executive Sprinter takes fourteen with luggage; the mini coach takes thirty-two with under-floor bays. The chauffeur meets the group at the pre-arranged curb, or inside with a board if the meet and greet is added, and everyone arrives at the hotel together. Conference organisers use the same product for delegate shuttles between the airport and a hotel block; the trade shows page covers it.

Connections and cross-city transfers

A traveller connecting between airports - landing at Pearson and departing from Billy Bishop, or between Trudeau and a regional field - books a single transfer with both flight numbers, and the chauffeur is timed to the first arrival and the second check-in. For the airports across the border, Buffalo from Toronto and Seattle from Vancouver, the cross-border service uses the same booking with a chauffeur who knows the crossing and the documents required.

Corporate airport transfers

For companies the airport transfer is the trip that justifies an account: the flight number lives on the traveller's profile, the pickup is watched, the hotel is the default drop-off and the invoice arrives once a month with every trip listed by traveller and cost centre. The corporate page explains the setup.

The airports, in one table

Figures are approximate planning numbers from the airport authorities' own maps and standard road distances; the reservation engine prices the exact address. Airport websites - torontopearson.com, yvr.ca, admtl.com, yyc.com - publish the ground-transportation layouts we describe.

Landing at night, landing in winter

Two conditions change an airport transfer more than any other: the hour and the season. A midnight arrival at Edmonton in January is minus twenty-five at the curb, the taxi rank may be empty and the app may show no cars for twenty minutes; the pre-booked chauffeur has been idling with the heater on since the aircraft's descent began, and the walk from the doors to a warm car is thirty seconds. A 6 am departure from Halifax or Regina is the same story in reverse. Every vehicle in the fleet runs winter tyres from November, and the chauffeurs in the northern cities keep the car running while they wait, which the airport authorities permit at the pre-arranged curb and do not at the ride-app zone.

The season also changes the drive time, and the engine's suggested pickup for a departure knows it: the 401 in an ice storm, the Sea-to-Sky in a snowfall, the Trans-Canada east of Calgary in a ground blizzard. Environment Canada's weather warnings and the provincial 511 services - Ontario 511, DriveBC, Alberta 511 - are what dispatch watches on a bad day, and a chauffeur who will be late because the highway is closed calls before the pickup, not after.

The international arrival, step by step

For a passenger landing from abroad the sequence at every Canadian gateway is the same and the timing is the reason sixty minutes of waiting are included. The aircraft lands and taxis, which at Pearson or YVR can be ten minutes. Passengers walk to the CBSA hall and clear either at a primary inspection kiosk or with an officer; the Canada Border Services Agency publishes what to declare and the kiosks take most of the work, but a full wide-body wave can mean a thirty-minute queue. Then baggage claim, which on an international flight is the slow part - the bags come from the far end of the apron. Then the exit into the arrivals hall, where the meet-and-greet chauffeur is standing with the board, or the walk to the pre-arranged curb, where the curbside chauffeur has been since the aircraft's wheels touched. Sixty minutes covers all of that on an ordinary night and most of it on a bad one; if it runs over, the waiting is charged at the class rate pro rata, which is still a fraction of what a missed pickup would cost you.

Connecting passengers arriving from the United States are a special case: US preclearance means the flight lands as a domestic arrival at the Canadian end, the bags come to the domestic carousel and the walk to the curb is short. The thirty-minute domestic allowance applies, and it is enough.

Unaccompanied minors, elderly parents and first visits

Three passengers for whom the meet-and-greet add-on stops being a luxury. An unaccompanied minor is released by the airline only to a named adult with identification; our chauffeurs carry it and are named on the booking, and the airline's escort walks the child to the board. An elderly parent flying alone wants a face and a name, not a text and a plate; the chauffeur inside the hall takes the bag and the arm. A first visit to Canada - a student arriving at Pearson for September, a new employee landing at YVR - is an hour of decisions that a name board removes. In each case tell us at booking, put the passenger's mobile on the reservation so the chauffeur's text reaches them, and tick the add-on.

Accessibility

Folding wheelchairs, walkers and mobility scooters travel in the trunk of the SUV and the Sprinter and, folded, in most sedans; tell us at booking so the right class is sent and the chauffeur is ready to help at the curb. For a passenger who remains in the chair, an accessible vehicle with a lift can be arranged in the larger cities with notice; ask the desk. Airports provide their own assistance from the gate to the curb through the airline, booked with the flight, and the chauffeur meets the airline's escort at the door.

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