Fixed Fare — No Meter•25.7 Miles on the A23 & M23•£10.00 Drop-Off Included•Real-Time Flight Tracking
Looking for a fixed-price taxi from Brighton to London Gatwick with clear, upfront pricing? Stansted Airport Taxi prices this journey at 25.7 miles with no hidden charges — so you always know exactly what you’ll pay before your driver arrives. Saloon from £56.91, typical journey 35–55 minutes off-peak.
Unlike a metered taxi, the fare is pre-calculated on distance and vehicle class — not time or traffic. Whether you need a standard saloon, an eight-seater for the family and the cases, or an executive Mercedes, the price is fixed at booking across both Gatwick terminals: North and South.
A taxi from Brighton to London Gatwick Airport is a fixed-price journey of 25.7 miles, almost all of it on the A23 and the M23 that continues it. Allow 35 to 55 minutes outside the peak. Fares start at £56.91 for up to four people with three cases, agreed when you book and unchanged afterwards. Every fare here includes Gatwick's own £10.00 drop-off charge, so nothing is added at the barrier.
That includes the group sizes where they cost less than we do. On this route the coach starts at £6.50 a head and beats our fixed fare at every party size we carry — we say so here rather than let you find it out later. The train is the closer contest, and we run the numbers below.
Fares are calculated on distance and vehicle class. Your final fixed fare is confirmed at booking against your exact BN postcode. Actual distance and traffic conditions may affect the amount. Fares are identical in both directions and at every hour of the day.
Return journeys cost the same as outbound. There is no "return automatically doubled" mechanic and no arrivals premium — a Brighton pickup and a Gatwick pickup for the same party at the same class are the same fare.
Every fare below is computed the same way: a minimum charge covering the first five miles, then a per-mile rate for the remaining 20.7. At 25.7 miles a saloon comes to £56.91 and an eight-seater to £73.98. The arithmetic sits beside each row so you can check it.
| Vehicle | Seats | Luggage | Fixed fare | How it is calculated | Per head at capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saloon | Up to 4 | Up to 3 cases | £56.91 | £30.00 + 20.7 × £1.30 | £14.23 at 4 |
| Estate | Up to 5 | Up to 4 cases | £59.14 | £31.20 + 20.7 × £1.35 | £11.83 at 5 |
| MPV5 | Up to 5 | Up to 4 cases | £62.60 | £33.00 + 20.7 × £1.43 | £12.52 at 5 |
| MPV6 | Up to 6 | Up to 5 cases | £65.55 | £34.50 + 20.7 × £1.50 | £10.92 at 6 |
| MPV7 | Up to 7 | Up to 6 cases | £71.24 | £37.50 + 20.7 × £1.63 | £10.18 at 7 |
| MPV8 (8-seater) | Up to 8 | Up to 8 cases | £73.98 | £39.00 + 20.7 × £1.69 | £9.25 at 8 |
| Executive (Mercedes E-Class) | Up to 3 | Up to 3 cases | £73.26 | £36.00 + 20.7 × £1.80 | £24.42 at 3 |
| Executive MPV (Mercedes V-Class) | Up to 6 | Up to 5 cases | £85.47 | £42.00 + 20.7 × £2.10 | £14.24 at 6 |
Fares are calculated on distance and vehicle class and confirmed against your exact BN postcode at booking. Actual distance and traffic conditions may affect the amount. Confirm your Brighton to Gatwick fixed fare online or call +44 20 3617 7825.
Our saloon at £56.91 is not the lowest fare published for this journey. Several sites advertise a single flat headline number below that figure, without a vehicle table beside it.
What the fixed price actually buys is a fare that does not move with traffic, a vehicle sized for the party and the cases rather than the smallest one that seats them, and a driver who tracks your flight and does not charge extra when it lands late.
National Express runs route 025 from Brighton Pool Valley Coach Station to London Gatwick Airport. Fares start from £6.50. The fastest service takes 40 minutes; the average is about 45. There are up to 20 services a day, and the route calls at Old Steine, Preston Circus, Preston Park, Withdean Park and Patcham on its way out of the city. At £6.50 a head it is less expensive than our fixed fare at every party size we carry, so here is the arithmetic in public with no hedging on the rows we lose.
| Passengers | Our cheapest fitting vehicle | Coach total at £6.50 | Our fixed fare | Which is less |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saloon | £6.50 | £56.91 | directions_busCoach cheaper by £50.41 |
| 2 | Saloon | £13.00 | £56.91 | directions_busCoach cheaper by £43.91 |
| 3 | Saloon | £19.50 | £56.91 | directions_busCoach cheaper by £37.41 |
| 4 | Saloon | £26.00 | £56.91 | directions_busCoach cheaper by £30.91 |
| 5 | Estate | £32.50 | £59.14 | directions_busCoach cheaper by £26.64 |
| 6 | MPV6 | £39.00 | £65.55 | directions_busCoach cheaper by £26.55 |
| 7 | MPV7 | £45.50 | £71.24 | directions_busCoach cheaper by £25.74 |
| 8 | MPV8 | £52.00 | £73.98 | directions_busCoach cheaper by £21.98 |
There is no group size at which we win on money alone on this route. The coach fare would have to pass £9.25 a head before a full eight-seater matched it. That is a real fact about this journey, and we would rather write it here than let you find it somewhere else.
The coach runs on its own schedule and it does not leave from your door. A car makes sense in these cases.
An early flight before the first service, or a late arrival after the last, is a straightforward fixed-fare booking for us.
The stops are Pool Valley, Old Steine, Preston Circus, Preston Park, Withdean Park and Patcham. Rottingdean and Saltdean on the coast road east, Portslade and Southwick on the western edge, and much of the Hove seafront are all a meaningful distance from any of those.
A family with cases plus a pushchair plus a car seat is not always a fit for a shared vehicle.
Small children, reduced mobility, or a fixed check-in time with no slack. Route 025 uses the A23, and the A23 has no parallel route of any use — an incident on it cannot be re-routed around.
Taking the coach after reading this is a perfectly good outcome. If you take the coach out and want to be met with your name on a board on the way back with your cases, we will be the fixed fare for that leg.
Two rail services run from Brighton railway station to the airport station in the South Terminal, and both are quoted at half an hour. They are not the same train. Both are operated by the same parent company, Govia Thameslink Railway. The stopping patterns differ. The prices differ. The headline number does not — comparing them on time alone is comparing the wrong thing.
30 min
Gatwick Express · non-stop
Runs non-stop in 30 minutes. It is a limited-stop service run by Govia Thameslink Railway, and the fare is usually the higher of the two.
33 min
Thameslink · average, 30 at fastest
Thameslink publishes 33 minutes on average and 30 minutes at its fastest, across 107 services a day. It calls at intermediate stations, so the fare is usually lower than the express and the frequency is higher.
Rail fares move with how far ahead you book. As of 3 August 2026, an advance single is seen at £10.30 and a walk-up single at £14.50. Split fares and promotional pricing occasionally reach as low as £4.00 but depend on availability. Check the current price on the operator's own site before you travel, because these figures move.
Book far enough ahead and the train holds the advantage until the party reaches seven.
| Passengers | Our cheapest fitting vehicle | Rail total | Our fixed fare | Which is less |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saloon | £10.30 | £56.91 | trainRail cheaper by £46.61 |
| 2 | Saloon | £20.60 | £56.91 | trainRail cheaper by £36.31 |
| 3 | Saloon | £30.90 | £56.91 | trainRail cheaper by £26.01 |
| 4 | Saloon | £41.20 | £56.91 | trainRail cheaper by £15.71 |
| 5 | Estate | £51.50 | £59.14 | trainRail cheaper by £7.64 |
| 6 | MPV6 | £61.80 | £65.55 | trainRail cheaper by £3.75 |
| 7 | MPV7 | £72.10 | £71.24 | local_taxiWe are cheaper by £0.86 |
| 8 | MPV8 | £82.40 | £73.98 | local_taxiWe are cheaper by £8.42 |
Turn up and buy on the day and the balance moves much earlier — from four passengers onwards.
| Passengers | Our cheapest fitting vehicle | Rail total | Our fixed fare | Which is less |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saloon | £14.50 | £56.91 | trainRail cheaper by £42.41 |
| 2 | Saloon | £29.00 | £56.91 | trainRail cheaper by £27.91 |
| 3 | Saloon | £43.50 | £56.91 | trainRail cheaper by £13.41 |
| 4 | Saloon | £58.00 | £56.91 | local_taxiWe are cheaper by £1.09 |
| 5 | Estate | £72.50 | £59.14 | local_taxiWe are cheaper by £13.36 |
| 6 | MPV6 | £87.00 | £65.55 | local_taxiWe are cheaper by £21.45 |
| 7 | MPV7 | £101.50 | £71.24 | local_taxiWe are cheaper by £30.26 |
| 8 | MPV8 | £116.00 | £73.98 | local_taxiWe are cheaper by £42.02 |
On the advance single our fare wins from seven passengers, and the margin at that point is only £0.86 — close enough that anyone choosing on price alone could reasonably go either way. On the walk-up single our fare wins from four passengers, with a margin of £1.09.
Advance single at £10.30 · crossover at 7
Walk-up single at £14.50 · crossover at 4
So the honest sentence is not "we beat the train". It is that one or two people travelling light and booking ahead should take the train. A family with cases, an early departure before the trains run, or anyone starting a mile from Brighton station with a suitcase is better off in a car. The station-to-airport-station journey is 30 minutes. The walk to the station, the change if any, the ticket queue and the platform time are all extra, and none of them appears in the headline number.
The airport station is in the South Terminal. If you are flying from the North Terminal, arriving by rail means the free inter-terminal shuttle with your luggage.
Gatwick has North and South terminals and no numbered terminals of any kind. A free inter-terminal shuttle connects them in a few minutes. Which terminal your flight uses depends on your airline, not on your booking with us — a booking made against the wrong terminal is the single most common cause of a missed meeting on this route.
For a meet-and-greet, the driver waits inside your terminal with a name-board carrying your surname. That is included on every inbound booking at no additional charge — no "meet-and-greet upgrade" appears on your fare.
For kerbside pickup, the airport requires drivers to meet passengers in a Short Stay car park rather than at the terminal forecourt. That is a short covered walk from Arrivals, and it is the meeting point we confirm with your booking once you tell us the terminal.
We track your flight, so the pickup time follows the aircraft rather than the booked slot. If you land early, the driver is there early. If you land two hours late, nothing needs to be rebooked and there is no waiting charge for the delay itself.
Complimentary waiting is 60 minutes from the actual landing time, on every inbound booking. That covers immigration and the baggage hall on all but the worst days.
Gatwick's drop-off charge is £10.00 for 10 minutes at either terminal, then £1.00 a minute to 20 minutes, with a maximum stay of 30 minutes and a £30.00 daily maximum. That charge is inside our fixed fare — you do not see it added on. For collection, the Long Stay car parks are free for 2 hours with a free shuttle to the terminals, and normal parking rates apply in the Short Stay.
Does not apply to licensed private hire.
None apply. This journey ends about 28 miles short of central London.
Airlines move between them on occasion. Tell us and we change the meeting point. There is no charge for that.
The road story is the simplest of any route we cover. The A23 begins in Brighton, runs 51.2 miles in total, and passes Pyecombe, Bolney, Handcross and Pease Pottage on the way. At Pease Pottage the A23 becomes the M23, and the airport spur leaves the motorway at its northern end. One road, one direction, no orbital motorway to join and no arc around London to sit in.
The published free-running drive time for the 25.7 miles is 33 minutes. That is a routing engine's road time. We do not publish it as a door-to-door journey time, because almost nobody actually experiences the empty road it describes. These are the realistic bands.
| When you travel | Realistic door-to-door | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quiet, overnight and Sunday morning | 35 to 45 minutes | Free-running A23 and M23 |
| Typical off-peak | 45 to 55 minutes | Normal weekday traffic |
| Weekday peak, roughly 07:00–09:30 and 16:30–19:00 | 55 to 75 minutes | Pease Pottage and the airport spur |
| Incident or closure | reportAdd 30 minutes or more | The A23 has no useful parallel route |
The A23 has no parallel road of any real use, so everything from Brighton to Crawley funnels through it. An incident anywhere between Pyecombe and Pease Pottage has nowhere to send its traffic, and the delay compounds fast.
For a Brighton pickup to reach a 09:00 flight, we would normally book 05:45. For an early evening flight after work, we would suggest allowing the upper end of the peak band rather than the lower. We build all of that into the pickup time we quote rather than into the fare.
Short and factual — most people booking this journey already know it, which is why it sits here rather than at the top.
Gatwick Airport sits roughly 28 miles south of central London. “London Gatwick” is the airport's name rather than a description of where it is, which is why a journey from Brighton takes about half the time people expect. The airline industry and the airport itself both use the longer name now — the airport has not moved.
The rail services running Brighton to the airport continue through the airport to London Victoria. So "Brighton, Gatwick and London" together can mean two entirely different trips: Brighton to the airport at 25.7 miles, or Brighton to central London at roughly 50 miles.
We price Brighton to the airport here. If you want Brighton to central London itself, that is a different trip and we say so plainly rather than quoting for it here. Talk to us and we can build a fixed fare for it.
We cover Brighton & Hove — the local authority that includes both names and takes in most of the coastal conurbation from Portslade in the west to Rottingdean and Saltdean in the east. Give us a postcode when you book and the fare is confirmed against it.
For station pickups we meet at the taxi rank on the forecourt at Brighton railway station. For the streets around The Lanes and North Laine, name a sensible meeting point — those streets are tight and often pedestrianised, and a saloon-plus can rarely reach the door. Seafront hotels are usually straightforward.
Church Road, Palmeira Square and the streets down to the seafront are a standard pickup, priced the same as Brighton centre — the mileage difference to the airport is negligible.
BN2 covers Kemptown, the hospital, the Marina and the coast road east through Rottingdean and Saltdean. Both are further from any coach stop than most people realise, which is why the coach comparison earlier is not the whole picture.
BN1 covers the Preston Road stretch and the top of the town. Patcham is the last Brighton stop before the A23 leaves the city, which means the drive to the airport from Patcham is shorter than from the seafront.
The western edge of the conurbation. Both are covered at Brighton fares.
BN43 and BN15, west of Portslade, are covered by a different page for airport transfers, so they do not appear as a Brighton pickup in our booking form. If you are on that side of the boundary, we have a fixed fare for you from that page.
For an early-morning pickup, tell us the night before wherever possible. For a Marina, Portslade or Rottingdean address, allow us the eastern or western side of the peak — a 05:00 booking from the far side of the conurbation is a different start time from a 05:00 booking from the station forecourt.
Tell us the bags, not just the people. A saloon takes three cases and four passengers, but four passengers with four cases need the estate. Skis, golf clubs, musical instrument cases and pushchairs all fit somewhere in the fleet; they just need mentioning when you book so the right vehicle turns up.
Child seats are provided free and must be requested in advance, because a driver cannot produce one at the kerb. Say the age when you book and we fit the correct stage — infant carrier, forward-facing seat or booster. Wheelchairs and mobility aids are carried; tell us the folded dimensions so the boot space works out.
The first coach out of Brighton is not early enough for every flight, and a 05:00 pickup from a Brighton street is a normal booking for us — several every night, in fact. We ask for a little more notice than a same-day booking so the vehicle and driver are confirmed to the pickup.
Message us as soon as you know. Changing a pickup time costs nothing, in either direction. A cancelled outbound flight is not a charge either, provided we hear before the driver has set off. For inbound delays we are already watching the flight, so no message is needed — the pickup time updates to your actual landing time.
Corporate and account customers, and anyone booking a return trip, receive one confirmation covering both legs. There is no re-quoting on the return and no separate booking form.
The eight questions we are asked most often about the Brighton to London Gatwick run.
A saloon for up to four people is £56.91, fixed at the time of booking. Larger vehicles run from £59.14 for an estate up to £73.98 for an eight-seater, and an executive car is £73.26. The fare covers the 25.7-mile journey and the airport's £10.00 drop-off charge. It does not change if the traffic does, and there is no arrivals premium on the return leg.
The coach. National Express route 025 from Brighton Pool Valley starts at £6.50 a head, and at that price it costs less than our fixed fare at every group size we carry — even at 8 passengers, where the coach comes to £52.00 against our £73.98. A car makes sense when you are travelling before the coach runs, starting a long way from a coach stop, carrying more luggage than a coach booking allows, or travelling with small children.
About half an hour on either service. The Gatwick Express is non-stop in 30 minutes. Thameslink publishes 33 minutes on average and 30 at its fastest, across 107 services a day. The airport station is in the South Terminal, so allow a few extra minutes and a shuttle ride if you are flying from the North Terminal.
25.7 miles by road, or 41.4 km, almost all of it on the A23 and the M23 that continues it. A straight line is 24.0 miles, so the road adds very little to the distance. Published figures elsewhere range from 25 to 28 miles depending on where the measurement starts in the city.
No. The airport is at Crawley in West Sussex, roughly 28 miles south of central London. “London Gatwick” is the airport's name rather than a description of where it is, which is why a journey from Brighton to the airport takes about half the time people expect.
Your driver meets you inside your terminal with a name-board, and tracks the flight so a delay or an early landing is not a problem. Gatwick has North and South terminals — no numbered terminals — and a free shuttle connects them in a few minutes. Tell us the terminal when you book and the meeting point is confirmed with your booking.
35 to 45 minutes when the road is quiet, 45 to 55 at a normal time of day, and up to 75 in the weekday peak. The A23 has no useful parallel route, so an incident on it adds half an hour or more. We build that into the pickup time rather than into the fare.
No. The fare you are quoted is the fare you pay, whether the pickup is at five in the morning or midnight. Early departures from Brighton are routine for us — the only thing we ask is a little more notice than a same-day booking so the vehicle and driver are confirmed.
A fixed Brighton to London Gatwick fare from £56.91 confirmed before you travel, computed at 25.7 miles against your exact BN postcode. A vehicle sized for the party and the cases. Pickup from any Brighton & Hove address at any hour, day or night. A driver meeting your inbound flight, tracking the aircraft, with 60 minutes of complimentary waiting from the actual landing time.
Book online at stanstedairport-taxi.com or by phone on +44 20 3617 7825, 24 hours a day.
2026-08-04 02:57:57 • 5 min read
Between Bristol and London Gatwick Airport is 129.4 miles (208.3 km) by road — the longest corridor we publish, and one where the train, Nat...
Read More chevron_right
2026-08-03 08:57:38 • 5 min read
Worthing to Heathrow is about 56 miles by road (90 km), a typical drive of 1 hour 28 minutes, and there are three honest ways to travel it: the di...
Read More chevron_right
2026-07-22 11:48:40 • 5 min read
Newcastle upon Tyne to London Heathrow is a ~280-mile intercity journey, and we will say the unfashionable thing first: for most people travelling...
Read More chevron_right
2026-07-22 08:53:32 • 5 min read
Salisbury sits roughly 70–75 miles south-west of London Heathrow Airport, and — despite what some ticket sites imply — no train ...
Read More chevron_right
2026-07-22 08:51:31 • 5 min read
Clapham Junction handles more trains than any station in Britain — roughly 2,000 a day — yet none runs through to Heathrow. Every trip...
Read More chevron_right
2026-07-22 08:51:46 • 5 min read
Kingston upon Thames lies only 11–13 miles from Heathrow by road, yet it is one of the few corners of London with no direct rail link to the...
Read More chevron_right
2026-07-21 11:52:45 • 5 min read
Getting from Leeds to Heathrow Airport means covering roughly 195 miles down the length of England, and there is no single right answer — it...
Read More chevron_right
2026-07-21 10:55:00 • 5 min read
A fixed-fare, door-to-door taxi from Euston station to any Heathrow terminal starts at £45.60 for a saloon — agreed at booking, with n...
Read More chevron_right
