Taxi from Stratford to London City AirportFrom £43 Fixed · No CCZ · LCY £8 Pre-Settled · 24/7
Stratford E15 sits five miles from London City Airport by road — out along the A118 High Street, onto the A13, then the final approach into the terminal. Fifteen to twenty minutes when the roads are clear. Gatwick Taxi Transfer covers E15 and E20 plus the surrounding east London postcodes: West Ham E13, Forest Gate E7, Bow E3, Hackney Wick E9 and Leyton E10. Fixed from £43. No Congestion Charge from any of them. The £8 forecourt levy is cleared before your driver sets off.
Pricing reviewed
- West Ham £42 · Stratford £43 · Forest Gate £43 · Westfield £43
- Maryland £44 · Bow £44 · Hackney Wick £44 · Leyton £46
- Estate £49 · five-seat £55 · seven-seat £60 · executive £73 · minibus £94
- Levy paid up front · east of the charging zone · Euro 6 and Euro 4 fleet
- Cars out at any hour · driver named before midnight · collected at your door
Levy settled up front · no zone charge · no ULEZ · any hour
Which Car for the Run Down to London City
Six classes of car, one price against each, and nothing that shifts on the morning. The whole fleet is Euro 6 or Euro 4, which means no ULEZ, and not one postcode listed here falls inside the charging zone. We clear the £8 forecourt levy before the driver sets off. Child seats and boosters cost nothing extra. The full fleet is listed here.
Saloon
Toyota Prius or Skoda Octavia, four seats and two large cases. This is the standard run from Stratford: out along the A118 High Street, onto the A13, then the final mile into the terminal. Four and a half miles, fifteen to twenty minutes when the roads are clear. That quote already carries the levy, and no E postcode has ever attracted the Congestion Charge.
Book Saloon — from £43
Estate Car
Skoda Superb estate with a boot that takes three full-size cases beside four passengers. Westfield hotel guests checking out with a fortnight’s luggage, or families leaving an East Village flat, tend to size up rather than gamble on the saloon boot. Six pounds over the base rate, same route, same named driver.
Book Estate — from £49
Five-Seat MPV
Ford Galaxy or Volkswagen Sharan carrying five with four cases. Office teams heading out from the Stratford business quarter, or a family of five leaving Maryland, travel in one vehicle on one fare. Put four or five people in it and the total generally comes in under a pair of saloons.
Book MPV 5 — from £55.webp)
Seven-Seat MPV
Mercedes V-Class or Viano for up to seven with full luggage. Larger groups from Hackney Wick studios, Bow flats or a Forest Gate household travel together rather than splitting across cabs. One booking, one pickup point, one fare regardless of which of the three routes the driver takes on the day.
Book MPV 6/7 — from £60
Executive
A Mercedes E-Class, leather inside, glass tinted at the back, cold water in the door. The technology and media firms clustered around Stratford and Hackney Wick take it when a client is travelling, and so does anyone whose finance team wants a VAT receipt landing in the system on its own. Any business in E15 or E20 can set up monthly invoicing.
Book Executive — from £73.webp)
Minibus
Eight people and everything they are carrying in one car, booked once and invoiced once. Conference groups leaving the Stratford venues, multi-family departures and larger office parties take this over coordinating three separate cars from three doors. Same-day requests accepted when a vehicle is free.
Book 8-Seat — from £94Stratford & East London to LCY — Every Fare, Every Vehicle
Each figure is the whole cost, agreed at the point of booking and unchanged afterwards. E15, E20, E13, E7, E3, E9, E10 and E11 all sit east of the Congestion Charge boundary, so no zone charge applies at any hour. We pay the £8 forecourt levy in advance, and nothing in the fleet attracts a ULEZ charge. Last checked .
| Neighbourhood | Code | Saloon | Estate | 5-Seat | 7-Seat | Exec | Minibus | Road mi | Typical | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Ham & Plaistow | E13 |
£42 | £48 | £54 | £59 | £72 | £93 | 3.2 mi | 12–17 min | Book → |
| Stratford Town Centre | E15 |
£43 | £49 | £55 | £60 | £73 | £94 | 5.0 mi | 15–20 min | Book → |
| Forest Gate & Upton Park | E7 |
£43 | £49 | £55 | £60 | £73 | £94 | 4.5 mi | 15–21 min | Book → |
| Westfield Stratford City | E20 |
£43 | £49 | £55 | £60 | £73 | £94 | 5.2 mi | 16–21 min | Book → |
| Maryland & Stratford New Town | E15 |
£44 | £50 | £56 | £61 | £74 | £95 | 5.3 mi | 16–22 min | Book → |
| Bow & Bow Road | E3 |
£44 | £50 | £56 | £61 | £74 | £95 | 5.2 mi | 17–23 min | Book → |
| Hackney Wick & Fish Island | E9 |
£44 | £50 | £56 | £61 | £74 | £95 | 5.5 mi | 18–24 min | Book → |
| Leyton & Leytonstone | E10 / E11 |
£46 | £52 | £58 | £63 | £76 | £97 | 6.0 mi | 20–26 min | Book → |
← Scroll across for the remaining vehicle classes →
Straight line against road distance
As the crow flies, Stratford is roughly two and a half miles from the terminal. No road follows that line. Every route swings east or south to reach the A13, which adds two miles. The figures in this table are road distances, which is what actually determines the fare and the journey time.
Where the charging zone actually ends
Its eastern limit falls in the City, roughly around Tower Hill and Aldgate. Stratford begins several miles further out, and the A118 and A13 approach never crosses back. Nothing is added for the zone on any journey listed here, at any hour, on any day.
Coming home
The inbound price matches the outbound. There is a single terminal and a single way out of arrivals at London City, so the driver waits past the gate with a board and stays three quarters of an hour from the moment you land. A long queue at the border adds nothing to the bill.
Every Stratford & East London Area to London City Airport
Eight neighbourhoods, each priced individually and each with its own case for taking a car instead of the train. Type the postcode into the booking page and back comes the figure for door to terminal.
West Ham & Plaistow
West Ham Lane, Green Street, Barking Road, Plaistow High Street, Prince Regent Lane. Sitting directly south of Stratford and north of the A13 corridor, this is the closest area on the page to the terminal. Barking Road heads out east and picks up the A13 around East Ham for the last stretch. Three miles, twelve to seventeen minutes, and the cheapest confirmed fare here.
Stratford Town Centre
Stratford High Street, The Mall Stratford, Great Eastern Road, Romford Road, Stratford Broadway. One of the busiest interchanges in the country sits here — Central and Jubilee lines, DLR, Overground, Elizabeth line and National Rail all within a short walk. For the airport, the road route is the A118 east then the A13, five miles, so fifteen to twenty minutes when nothing is holding you up.
Forest Gate & Upton Park
Forest Gate station area, Woodgrange Road, Romford Road, Green Street, Upton Park, Queens Market. Neither Forest Gate nor Upton Park has a rail link toward the airport — every public route needs a change, most need two. The road route drops down Romford Road to the North Circular and picks up the A13 from there — 4.5 miles, and fifteen to twenty-one minutes on it.
Westfield Stratford City
Westfield Stratford City, Montfichet Road, Arena Square, International Way, Stratford City Boulevard. Europe’s largest urban shopping centre, with hotels attached and a car park layout that confuses first-time drivers. Name the entrance, hotel or car park level when booking and the driver has it the evening before. Four and eight-tenths of a mile, sixteen to twenty-one minutes.
Maryland & Stratford New Town
Maryland Point, Leytonstone Road, Windmill Lane, Manbey Park Road, Water Lane. The residential streets north of Stratford station, served by Maryland on the Elizabeth line but with nothing running toward the airport. The drive runs five miles down the same corridor and takes sixteen to twenty-two minutes, a pound over what the town centre pays.
Bow & Bow Road
Bow Road, Bow Church, Roman Road, Tredegar Road, Old Ford Road, Fairfield Road, Devons Road. Bow sits west of Stratford with direct access to the A12 running south. That is the route: A12 down to the A13 junction, then east. Five and two-tenths of a mile, seventeen to twenty-three minutes. Bow Road DLR reaches the airport only with two changes.
Hackney Wick & Fish Island
Hackney Wick High Street, Wallis Road, Roach Road, Fish Island, White Post Lane. The creative and studio quarter north-west of Stratford, where a good deal of the local design and media industry works out of converted warehouses. Rail to the airport means changing at Stratford then again at Canning Town. By road: A12 south to the A13, five and a half miles, eighteen to twenty-four minutes.
Leyton & Leytonstone
Leyton High Road, High Road Leytonstone, Cathall Road, Grove Road, Dawlish Road, Hainault Road. The furthest area covered here, sitting north of Stratford. Leyton High Road runs south to the A12, which joins the A13 east. Six miles, twenty to twenty-six minutes. From Leyton Midland Road or Leytonstone the public transport route to the airport needs multiple changes and a good deal of walking.
A118, A12 or Barking Road — Which One You Get
Pickups here funnel onto one of three roads heading south and east. The choice comes down to your starting postcode and whatever the traffic is doing that morning. Each one meets the A13 for the closing stretch, and the price is the same regardless.
DLR or a Taxi from Stratford — An Honest Split
The DLR is genuinely good from Stratford under one set of conditions. Outside those, the car wins. Here it is without the sales pitch.
Booking a car — what suits most people leaving here
- Picks up at the building you specify, sets down at the terminal doors
- Available whenever, hours ahead of the first train
- Cost settled at booking, levy dealt with, zone irrelevant
- Any number of cases, none of them lifted onto a platform
- Goes straight into Hackney Wick, Bow, Leyton and Forest Gate
- Who is driving, what they drive and how to reach them, sent in advance
- A party of eight in one vehicle, billed once
- The executive car at £73 when the trip matters
DLR from Stratford station — right for one case
Stratford to Canning Town, change, then on to the airport — fifteen to eighteen minutes running time for around £2.50 on Oyster. It works if you are travelling alone, carrying little, live near the platform and are going between about half five and midnight on a weekday or Saturday. Sunday services start later, which catches people out.
Stratford International — wrong station
This one trips people up regularly. Stratford International runs Southeastern Javelin services west to St Pancras. It does not go toward the airport at all. The DLR you want is at Stratford station, a separate building around five minutes walk away. Book a car and the distinction stops mattering.
Elizabeth line — goes the wrong way
The Elizabeth line from Stratford heads west toward Liverpool Street and Heathrow. For London City you would ride it in, change at Liverpool Street, then take the DLR back out east — around thirty-five minutes with two changes to reach an airport five miles away. The direct DLR from Stratford is better, and a car is better still with bags.
Working Backwards from a 07:00 Flight
The terminal doors open at half six on a weekday, so turning up before that achieves nothing. Work back from a 06:30 arrival so here is when to set off from each area. The airline wants sixty minutes if everything is coming into the cabin, seventy-five if a case is going below. A seven o’clock flight is therefore tight, and worth planning as though it is.
Leave by, for a 07:00 flight
The DLR from Stratford does not start until around half five, and Sunday later than that. For a departure earlier than 07:00 the rail option simply is not running in time. That is the single most common reason people book from these postcodes.
Getting out of the Westfield car park and onto the road takes longer than people expect, particularly from the upper levels. If your pickup is inside the centre rather than on a street outside, build in five minutes on top of the times above.
Match days and concerts bring managed road closures around the park and the High Street. Drivers know the pattern and route round it, but for a departure falling inside an event window the pickup is brought forward and you are told why.
Three Steps and the Car Is Booked
Priced Once, Driver Named, Levy Handled
Stratford to the Airport — Questions
Other Areas We Cover to London City
Every neighbourhood near the airport has a page of its own carrying its pricing and the spots drivers collect from.
Everything inside the park itself is handled by the Olympic Park page, which carries the pickup points for each venue and the fares for that zone. This page stays with Stratford town centre, Westfield and the residential streets around them.