The twenty minute advantage: from City Airport's runway to an evening on the Wharf

Why the Wharf flies from the Royal Docks

Ask around the trading floors which airport people prefer and the answer is rarely Heathrow. London City lies a few miles east of the towers, on a strip of former quayside with Royal Albert Dock on one side and King George V Dock on the other, and it was designed for travellers who measure a trip in minutes. The runway is short and the approach is steep, so the aircraft are compact regional jets, and the destinations are the ones a bank's travel desk books every week: Edinburgh, Dublin, Zurich, Frankfurt and their neighbours.

For an evening, the point is arithmetic. From a hotel on the estate, Heathrow is a crossing of the whole capital. City Airport is close enough that a guest who lands at half past seven can have dropped the bag, changed the shirt and sat down to dinner by the dock while a colleague on the western airport's flight is still waiting at the carousel. Your evening starts while other people are still in transit.

Gate to kerb, kerb to lobby

The terminal is one modest building, and anyone carrying only a cabin bag moves through it quickly: a short walk from the aircraft, passport control for international arrivals, then the exit. Two sensible routes lead west from there.

The DLR station is joined to the terminal. Board a train signed for Bank and change at Poplar for Canary Wharf, or step off at Poplar and walk the last ten minutes south onto the estate. Another option is to change at Canning Town onto the Jubilee line, two stops from Canary Wharf. Allowing for the change, most guests reach an estate lobby around twenty minutes after stepping onto the platform, a little more for the hotels along Marsh Wall.

The taxi rank waits outside arrivals. A cab runs west beside the docks, over the Lower Lea Crossing and onto the estate, and outside the evening rush the ride takes roughly a quarter of an hour. With a heavy case, or in rain, it is the better choice.

Send the flight number before you board

The whole advantage depends on the desk hearing early. Write from the departure lounge rather than from the back of the cab: flight number, scheduled landing, hotel, and the length of evening you want. Philippa follows the flight and times the companion's journey so that she walks into your lobby a few minutes after you do, which beats waiting for her and beats her waiting for you.

If the aircraft is held at the far end, one line is enough: 'Delayed forty minutes.' The start moves with it, as long as the message arrives before she has left home. The check itself is brief: whose name the room is booked under, which hotel, which room. It happens once, in that same thread, and goes no further.

The hotel sets the fare, never the fee

Wherever you sleep, the ladder stays put, from £250 for a single hour through £400 for ninety minutes to £500 for two. What changes with the address is her travel. Stay on the estate, anywhere from West India Quay down to South Quay, and her journey is already inside the fee, because Canary Wharf falls within the first two zones.

Stay beside the runway instead, at E16 1AL on Royal Victoria Dock or the hotels at either end of ExCeL, and you are in Zone 3. There her taxi, out and back, is written into the confirmation as one sum, and you see it before saying yes. Guests with a free choice usually pick the estate. The transfer is short either way, and the towers offer far more within a five minute walk once the evening is under way.

Three evenings that begin before the others land

The reset. Down at seven, in the lobby by a quarter to eight, and she knocks at eight to find your shoes already off. Supper comes up from room service, the dock lights come on outside, and ninety minutes, £400, leave time for a proper night's sleep that still feels as if an evening happened.

The table. Four hours for £900 on the dinner by the dock itinerary. She meets you in the hotel bar, dinner is at Wood Wharf or on the cobbles of West India Quay, and the walk back follows the water while the office windows go dark above you.

The late landing. The last arrivals of the evening come into a quiet terminal, and the estate's hotel bars have not yet called last orders when you walk in. Two hours from half past ten, £500, and the journey is forgotten by midnight. For this one, message before take-off, because fewer diaries stay open that late.

The eve of an early departure

The same geography works in reverse. The first departures go out early, and a guest sleeping on the estate is a short ride from the gate, which removes most of the dread from a dawn alarm. Plan the night from the alarm backwards and do the dull jobs first: the case closed, the taxi ordered for the morning, the alarm set twice.

Two hours from eight, over by ten, is the shape most people choose, with a light dinner and a drink by the water. The hotel visits after the close page explains how an estate evening runs, start to finish.

On the desk for arrival evenings

Nora is made for this kind of night. Late landings are her stated preference, she likes a day's notice, and she has usually chilled a small grower champagne before you have found your key card. Honey blonde and athletic, she designs and alters much of what she wears, so expect a comment on the cut of your travelling jacket. She sits with the blonde companions.

Stacy is the answer when the flight was only booked this morning. She agrees first and organises second, stands 176 cm in flat boots, and carries a battered camera that has photographed half the streets of east London. Milena replies to the desk within minutes and has never been late for anything; two tennis matches a week keep her competitive, even over dinner. Both appear on the statuesque page.

For hotels close to the terminal, see the London City Airport page; Royal Docks and ExCeL covers the conference quarter next door. Trips out of London with a companion are set out under the City Airport travel companion itinerary. Every figure is on rates, and booking is where the flight number goes.