Southampton to Gatwick Taxi: Fares, Times and Terminal Tips

What the Journey Costs

As with every airport run we make, the fare is per car, agreed before you travel, and starts from the published prices. There is no meter and no surge pricing, so the figure you are quoted when you book is the figure you pay when you arrive, even if the M23 has other ideas.

Gatwick is further than Heathrow, which the fare reflects, but it is also the airport where the train comparison flatters the car most: four people, cases, a change at Clapham Junction and an early start, against a door-to-door car at a set time. Price the whole journey, not just the ticket, before deciding.

MPVs and the 8-seater are priced from the same published fare table. Every airport fare we offer is listed on the fares page.

North Terminal or South Terminal?

This is the question that saves you twenty minutes. Gatwick's North and South terminals are linked by a shuttle that takes a couple of minutes, but being dropped at the wrong one with three cases and a boarding deadline is nobody's idea of a holiday start. Your airline and booking confirmation state the terminal plainly: easyJet uses North, British Airways and TUI use South, and other airlines are listed on the airport's site. Tell us the terminal when you book, and we drop you at the right forecourt first time.

Picking up works the same way. Your driver tracks the flight, knows the terminal from your booking, and is waiting where we agreed once you are through. Meet and greet is available on request if you want the driver inside arrivals with a name board, which first-time Gatwick travellers and anyone herding tired children off a night flight tend to appreciate.

Gatwick by Taxi or Train: The Honest Comparison

Gatwick is the one London airport where the train puts up a real fight, and honesty requires saying so. Direct trains run between Southampton Central and Gatwick Airport on the West Coastway line, taking around two hours, and there are more options if you change at Clapham Junction. For one traveller with a carry-on bag, travelling in the middle of the day, the train is a sensible and usually cheaper way to go.

The gaps appear at the edges of the day and the edges of the group. Gatwick's first departure banks leave before the first trains can get you there, and its last arrivals land after the last useful trains home. A family of four buys four tickets and still starts and ends the journey getting themselves and their cases to and from a station. The car is one fare for the whole group, collected from your door, set down at your terminal, and the same arrangement, with flight tracking and 60 minutes of free waiting, brings you home.

Then there is the question of what the day does to the timetable. Engineering works, Sunday service reductions and the occasional cancellation have a habit of landing on the one morning you cannot be late. A booked car has a driver whose only job is your flight, a route that can be changed with the traffic, and a fare agreed before you set off. Price both journeys whole, tickets plus the trips to and from stations at each end, before you decide.

The journey home deserves a thought too. Land at Gatwick at midnight after a long flight and the rail choice narrows to whatever is still running, while your booked driver is following the flight and waiting for the real arrival time. For a lot of our regulars, that return leg is the one that settled the question.

• The train suits solo travellers with light luggage, daytime flights and flexible timings
• The taxi suits early or late flights, groups of three or more, heavy cases and anyone who wants the journey settled in advance
• Either way, work backwards from your check-in deadline, not forwards from your front door

Timing the Run

Work backwards from check-in. Two hours at the airport for short-haul, three for long-haul, plus the drive, plus buffer. Gatwick's busiest banks of departures leave early, which puts Southampton pickups in the small hours: we run 24 hours a day, and a 3am pickup with a sleeping city behind you is one of the most reliable journeys of the day.

Coming home, the flight tracking earns its keep. Gatwick arrivals can land at any hour and delays stack up through the day. Your driver follows the flight and the 60 minutes of free waiting runs from the real landing time, so a late arrival home is a comfortable one rather than a costly one.

• Confirm your terminal from your airline booking before you travel, and tell us when you book
• Child seats are available on request, mention the children's ages at booking
• For arrivals, free waiting starts at touchdown and runs for 60 minutes
• Book the return in the same call and the flight home is tracked the same way