Thiruvananthapuram · TRV · T1 · T2
A private car from Trivandrum airport (TRV) into the city or out to Kovalam, Varkala and beyond, with a named chauffeur, live flight tracking and the full quote in hand before you pay.
Nothing is charged until you accept the quote.
At a glance
Thiruvananthapuram, better known to travellers as Trivandrum, splits its flights between two terminals on opposite sides of one runway: Terminal 1 by Shanghumugham beach handles domestic flights, and Terminal 2 at Chackai handles international ones, most of them to and from the Gulf. The two are about 5 km apart by road, so the terminal on your ticket decides where the car goes. Universal Airport Transfer books a private car with a named chauffeur, follows your flight and sends the full quote, usually within two hours, for you to accept before paying. The company’s Indian office is further up the coast in Kochi, and this booking, like every other, is made online.
LondonDublinParisAmsterdamFrankfurtMunichMilanRomeValenciaBudapestIstanbulNew YorkNassauCuraçaoCartagenaMedellínBuenos AiresUshuaiaDubaiDohaManamaRiyadhJeddahDelhiMumbaiKochiKozhikodeThiruvananthapuramBengaluruChennaiHyderabadSingaporeBaliManilaBeijingTokyoSydneyMelbourneBrisbane Terminal 1 or Terminal 2
The question that matters most here is which building your flight uses, because a car waiting at the wrong one is a drive round the end of the runway from the right one. This is how the two compare, from the airport operator’s own guidance and its flight board.
| What to know | Terminal 1 | Terminal 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Flights | Domestic. On the board for 1 October 2026: IndiGo, Air India and Air India Express flights within India, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad among them. | International. That day: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Doha, Muscat, Bahrain and Kuwait, plus Colombo, Malé and Kuala Lumpur. |
| Where it is | Near Shanghumugham beach, on the sea side of the runway. | At Chackai, on the city side, with a bridge over the Parvathy Puthanar canal to the NH 66 bypass. |
| After you land | No immigration: straight to the belts and out. | Immigration, then the belts, then customs, by the green or the red channel. |
| The airport’s advice for departures | Be at the terminal two hours before the flight. | Be at the terminal four hours before the flight. |
| Getting to the other one | The inter-terminal EV coach, round the clock, or about 5 km by road. | The same coach in the other direction, or the same short drive. |
The terminal follows the route, not the airline: IndiGo flies to Bengaluru from Terminal 1 and to Sharjah from Terminal 2. Some older travel guides still put Air India’s domestic flights in Terminal 2, but the operator’s board listed them at Terminal 1, so go by your ticket.
Price
Every journey is quoted on its own rather than sold from a price list, so the figure you receive is for your booking. These are the things that move it. Nothing is charged until you accept the quote. Tolls, where they apply, are either included in it or shown in it as an additional charge, and heavy traffic does not change the quoted price.
When you land
An international arrival walks out of Terminal 2 at Chackai; a domestic one out of Terminal 1 by the beach. Here is the sequence from the aircraft to the kerb, including the run of Gulf flights that lands before dawn.
Put the flight number, and the terminal from your booking, on the quote request. That flight is followed from then on, so if it leaves Muscat or Dubai late, the pickup shifts to match. If you hold a foreign passport, OCI card included, India’s e-Arrival card can be submitted in the 72 hours before you arrive, on the Bureau of Immigration’s website or the Indian Visa Su-Swagatam app.
Follow the signs to the arrival immigration hall with your passport, visa and arrival card to hand. Since September 2025 this airport has had e-gates for Fast Track Immigration (FTI-TTP): Indian nationals and OCI cardholders who have applied on the Home Ministry’s portal and then had biometrics taken at an airport or FRRO office can use them rather than queue at a counter.
The screens in the baggage hall list each flight against its belt. With nothing to declare, take the green channel; with dutiable goods, the red; Indian Customs’ ATITHI 2.0 app lets you file a goods or currency declaration on your phone in advance. If the belt or a check is slow, send the booking desk a WhatsApp message.
The airport keeps the kerb outside arrivals for meeting pre-arranged transport, and a standard pickup waits there; a name board in arrivals comes with the Meet and greet extra, included with every First Class booking. You receive the chauffeur’s name and contact details before pickup, on WhatsApp or by email, whichever you have been using with us. If you have neither reached the meeting point in the waiting time nor answered your phone, the booking counts as a no-show, so switch it on as you leave the aircraft.
From Terminal 2 the airport road meets the NH 66 bypass, which runs south to Kovalam and Vizhinjam and north to Technopark and Kazhakoottam. Thampanoor, where the central railway station is, lies roughly 6 to 8 km east by road, depending on the route. Heavy traffic on the way does not alter the price you were quoted.
Confirm the terminal on your booking shortly before you fly: Terminal 2 for any international flight, Terminal 1 for a flight within India. If your airline retimes the flight, on an Arattu evening or any other, send the new details to the booking desk straight away.
From TRV
Distances below are the airport operator’s where it publishes them; the rest are road distances from map routing on 1 October 2026, and traffic sets the time. A ride from the terminal to the city, Kovalam or Varkala is an arrival transfer. A long run, Kanyakumari for one, is quoted as a single point-to-point transfer, and a later run between two towns is a point-to-point booking with its own quote.
The operator puts the airport 3.7 km west of the city centre and 3 km from Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. By road, Thampanoor, with the central railway station and the KSRTC central bus station, is roughly 6 to 8 km from Terminal 2, depending on the route, and about 10 km from Terminal 1.
About 14 km south by the operator’s figure, down the NH 66 bypass. Kovalam’s main beaches, Lighthouse, Hawah and Samudra, are split by rocky outcrops, so send the hotel’s name rather than just Kovalam. The Vizhinjam seaport is about 16 km from the airport.
About 45 to 50 km north by road. Papanasam beach lies under the Varkala cliffs, which the Geological Survey of India has declared a National Geological Monument. The formations run for about 7.5 km of coast, so give the exact guesthouse or hotel, not just the town.
The IT park is about 13 km north by the operator’s figure, along the NH 66 bypass. A company that brings staff or visiting clients through TRV regularly can open a corporate account, with corporate rates and corporate account billing.
Roughly 25 to 30 km south-east, where the Neyyar river meets the Arabian Sea. Kerala Tourism notes that the beach itself is reached only by boat, so if your resort is across the water, send the jetty and the time the boat expects you.
The southern tip of mainland India, about 89 km from the airport by the operator’s figure. A run there, even straight from the terminal, is quoted as one point-to-point transfer on the route and the destination. Keeping the car for a day trip is an hourly booking, and hourly use outside the booked city or state carries an additional charge.
TRV
Established in 1932, it was the first airport in Kerala, and it is now run by Thiruvananthapuram International Airport Limited (TIAL), part of the Adani Group. It handled about 4.7 million passengers in 2025-26, by Airports Authority of India figures, and its operator calls it the gateway to the southern districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The airfield lies about 3.7 km west of the city centre and roughly 1 km from the Arabian Sea.
Terminals Two buildings facing each other across the runway, each with its own road entrance: Terminal 1 near Shanghumugham beach for flights within India, and Terminal 2 at Chackai for every international flight. An inter-terminal EV shuttle coach links the two 24 hours a day.
Get a TRV quoteServices
From Terminal 2 or Terminal 1 to your home, a city hotel or a resort at Kovalam or Varkala, with the flight tracked live and the pickup moving with it.
From your door to TRV, with the pickup timed back from your check-in cut-off and the traffic and the right terminal built in.
Between Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 when an international flight meets a domestic one on a separate ticket. Put the onward flight number in the request.
A car and chauffeur held by the hour, two hours at least, for meetings at Technopark or a day of stops around the city.
One run between two addresses with no airport involved, quoted on its own, such as Kovalam to Varkala or Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi.
How it works
Your flight, pickup and drop-off, passengers and bags, using the form below.
Usually within two hours, with any late-night, public holiday or short-notice charges shown. Nothing is charged until you accept it.
By secure payment link or bank transfer. Card details never reach this website.
Confirmed once paid, and the booking desk shares your voucher.
Questions
Terminal 1, near Shanghumugham beach, is for domestic flights, and Terminal 2, at Chackai, is for international ones. They are separate buildings with separate road entrances on either side of the runway, so tell us the terminal printed on your ticket along with your flight number.
Both, depending on the route. On the airport operator’s board for 1 October 2026, its domestic flights on the Bengaluru route were at Terminal 1, while its flights in from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Muscat used Terminal 2. Check the terminal on your own ticket rather than going by the airline.
Kovalam is about 14 km south, according to the airport operator, and Varkala about 45 to 50 km north by road. Both are booked as an arrival transfer from the terminal straight to your hotel, quoted on the distance, the vehicle class and the hour you arrive.
About 5 km by road, round the end of the runway, or by the airport’s inter-terminal EV shuttle coach, which runs 24 hours a day and suits light bags and a long gap. Arriving from abroad with bags that are not checked through, you clear immigration, collect them from the belt and take them through customs before you go. A car makes more sense with children, heavy bags or a short gap: request a terminal-to-terminal transfer with both flight numbers on it, so the pickup is timed to your arrival and the desk knows your onward departure.
Yes. The airport lists prepaid taxi counters at both terminals, app-based cabs from dedicated pickup areas, metered auto-rickshaws, and KSRTC Air-Rail EV buses to the central railway station and the city. A booked car earns its place on a pre-dawn Gulf arrival, a family with heavy luggage or a drive on to Varkala or Kanyakumari, with the chauffeur named before pickup and the quote seen before you pay.
The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple’s Arattu procession takes the idols to Shanghumugham beach for a holy bath, and its route crosses the airfield, a ritual that has carried on since the airport opened in 1932. So twice a year, at the Painkuni and Alpasi festivals, flights stop for more than four hours one evening while it passes. For 2026, Kerala Tourism gives the Alpasi festival as 11 to 20 October, ending with the Arattu, so an evening flight around 20 October may be moved. If yours is retimed, send the new time to the booking desk; arrivals are tracked, so the pickup follows the actual arrival time.
The airport’s guidance is to be there four hours ahead of an international flight and two hours ahead of a domestic one. Your pickup is timed back from that, allowing for the drive and the right terminal. At your door the waiting time is 15 minutes, counted from the scheduled pickup, so be ready with the bags packed.
Yes. A run this long, south to Kanyakumari, about 89 km away across the Tamil Nadu border, or north to Kochi, is quoted as one point-to-point transfer, priced on the route and the destination, with any tolls either included or shown as an extra. As the pickup is at the terminal, send your flight number with the request. A later leg, say Varkala to Kochi, is its own point-to-point booking with a separate quote.
Tell the booking desk as soon as the airline tells you. An airline cancelling, diverting or pushing your flight to the next day generally counts as a no-show under the service terms. The standard policy allows changes and cancellations until 48 hours before the flight. Cancelling before that point means a refund minus any costs already incurred; within the last 48 hours the full charge stands.
Waiting time, changes, cancellations and refunds are set out in full in our Terms & Conditions.
Request a transfer
Under five minutes to complete. We come back with a full quote, usually within two hours. Nothing is charged until you accept the quote.
