Cambridge Airport. Two miles from the colleges, and nothing like an airport.
No airlines, no terminal crowds, and a runway that sits almost inside the city. For the colleges, the science parks and Newmarket, nothing else in the east of England comes close.
The airport
Cambridge at a glance
- CodesCBG / EGSCOn Newmarket Road, roughly 2 miles east of Cambridge city centre.
- UseBusiness and general aviationNo scheduled airline service. Business jets, maintenance and general aviation share a single field with full air traffic control.
- TerminalCambridge Jet CentreThe business aviation terminal handles private arrivals and departures, with handling, customs and immigration arranged on the field.
- RunwayJust under 2,000 metresLong enough for most business jets. Your operator will confirm what your aircraft needs on the day and in the conditions.
Handling here is arranged directly with the jet centre. Send us the tail number and the handling agent and we will speak to them about where the car waits.
Journey times
From Cambridge Airport by road
| To | Quiet roads | Busy periods |
|---|---|---|
| Cambridge city centre and the colleges | 10 to 20 minutes | 20 to 35 minutes |
| Cambridge Biomedical Campus | 15 to 25 minutes | 25 to 40 minutes |
| Granta Park and Babraham | 20 to 30 minutes | 30 to 45 minutes |
| Newmarket | 25 to 35 minutes | 35 to 50 minutes |
| Ely | 25 to 35 minutes | 35 to 45 minutes |
| Stansted | 35 to 50 minutes | 50 to 70 minutes |
| Central London | 90 to 120 minutes | Up to 160 minutes |
| Heathrow | 110 to 140 minutes | Up to 180 minutes |
Realistic ranges, not promises. The A14 and the M11 junctions around the city are the variables, and Cambridge itself is slow by design: bus gates, cycle priority and restricted streets are everywhere.
Why clients use it
The airport for the colleges and the labs
Three kinds of journey account for most of what we do here. The first is academic and institutional: a benefactor, a visiting fellow or a family arriving for a matriculation, a graduation or an interview, where the destination is a specific porters' lodge rather than an address a satnav understands. The second is the science and biotech corridor, where a board visit or a due diligence day runs across the Biomedical Campus, Granta Park and one or two sites out towards Newmarket Road, and the car is needed all day rather than twice. The third is racing, because Newmarket is half an hour away and this is the natural airport for it.
All three reward the same thing: someone who has worked out the access before the day. Cambridge is a genuinely difficult city to drive in, and the difference between a good arrival and a bad one is usually knowing which gate a car is allowed through and where it may wait without being moved on. We do that work in advance and tell you what we found.
Our own cars and employed chauffeurs are in London and Manchester. For Cambridge we normally send a car and chauffeur up from London, which keeps the same person with you from the aircraft to the last meeting. Where a local car is the more sensible answer we arrange it through an operator we know, and we will say which we are proposing rather than leaving you to discover it.
Practicalities
Worth knowing
- Colleges are not hotels. Cars are often not allowed into the courts at all, and the nearest legal stopping place may be a hundred yards away on a restricted street. We find out which, and we tell the passenger before they are standing on the pavement with a bag
- May Week, matriculation, graduation days and the start of Michaelmas turn the centre of Cambridge into a slow crawl. If your date falls on one of them, we plan a different route and a wider margin
- Newmarket is the obvious onward destination and the sales weeks fill the roads and the hotels for miles around. Tell us if you are going to the sales or a race day and we will treat the timing accordingly
- For a full day across several sites, an as directed booking usually works better than a string of transfers: see hourly and as directed
- Four or more passengers with luggage: ask for a V-Class. For a group arriving together, see group travel
Onward
Where Cambridge passengers go next
Request a quote
Tell us the arrival
The date, the tail number or operator, how many passengers, and the college, campus or address at the other end. If you are doing several sites in a day, send the whole day and we will build it as one journey. Nothing is booked or charged online.
Prefer to talk? +44 2030 048300 or WhatsApp, at any hour.
Questions people ask
About Cambridge transfers
Can the car come to the aircraft?
Where the jet centre permits it for your movement. Otherwise the car is at the terminal door, a short walk from the aircraft. We confirm the arrangement before you land.
Can you get a car into my college?
Sometimes, and we will find out which before the day rather than on it. Where cars are not admitted we agree the nearest legal stopping point with the lodge and tell the passenger where to expect us.
Is Cambridge better than Stansted?
For a private flight, yes, by a clear margin: you land inside the city rather than forty minutes from it. For a scheduled flight the question does not arise, because Cambridge has no airline service.
Do you cover Newmarket?
Yes. It is about half an hour from the airport and a regular run for us, for the sales as well as race days.
Can you arrange the aircraft?
Yes. See private jet charter. Tell us the ground plan at the same time and we will build the two together.