My flight lands at Bristol late at night. Will there be a taxi?

Your flight's due in at 11:40pm. We've got the flight number, so we're watching it from departure. It picks up a 50 minute delay over France. You don't need to text anyone. The driver's pickup adjusts automatically, and when you walk out of arrivals at 12:50am the car's in the short stay and the driver's number is in your email. The first 45 minutes from your actual landing time are free waiting.

That last part is the whole product, honestly. Every bad experience people describe with late arrivals comes down to a booked car giving up and going home. Ours doesn't, because the delay is our problem, and the fare you booked is still the fare.

Delayed: covered, as above, no charge. Diverted to Cardiff or Exeter: call the 24/7 line and we'll re-plan the pickup, we've collected plenty of stranded Bristol passengers from Cardiff Airport. Flight cancelled entirely: cancel the taxi free, up to 24 hours ahead online, and if it's cancelled on the day just call us, we're not in the business of charging you for an airline's bad night.

If you'd rather see the delay coming yourself instead of finding out at the gate, text the flight number to Tick Taxi Flight Watcher on WhatsApp. It's free, it works whether or not you've booked a car, and it messages you when the gate, time or status changes.

Pre-book before you fly and the answer's simple: a car's waiting in the short stay, fixed price, same as any other hour. If you're reading this from arrivals with no booking, here's what's actually open at that hour. The A1 Flyer bus runs 24 hours and gets you to Bedminster, Temple Meads and the bus station, but it's not door to door and the gaps between buses get longer overnight, worth checking the timetable before you commit to standing at the stop. Uber's licensed at Bristol Airport with a signposted pickup zone, though fewer drivers are online after midnight and prices run £25 to £45 on demand. The taxi rank has cars on it most nights, but after a delayed inbound wave it can empty out fast, and there's no guarantee.

None of those are wrong choices, but they all depend on something being available when you land, which is exactly what a pre-booked car takes off the table. For the full breakdown of prices and journey times across all four options, see Bristol Airport to the city centre: taxi, bus or Uber.

The 3:30am pickups for 6am flights are the other half of our night shift. Fixed price, no surge, driver messages when they're outside. There's a full guide with leave times by area on our how early for Bristol Airport page.