From the Gate to the Key at an Island Airport

You land, you walk into a small terminal, and within twenty minutes you are standing at a desk with a clipboard. The hire car is not waiting at the kerb. It is in a compound, and someone has to hand you the key. Between the gate and the key there is a short sequence: the desk, the paperwork, the walk, and the checks you make before you turn the ignition. At Polish airports this work was once done by a state-founded agent, Warsaw Airport Services, whose history is documented at the ground handling archive.

What happens at the desk

At Stornoway, at Benbecula, at Kirkwall, the arrivals hall is one room. Baggage comes through a hatch. The hire desk is a counter at one end, often shared with the airport's own information point. The person behind it may be the same person who checks you in for the return flight.

They will ask for your licence, your address, and a card. They will ask when you are bringing the car back, and whether you want the tank full or empty on return. Answer plainly. On an island, the fuel question matters more than it does on the mainland, because the nearest filling station may be a single pump in a village and it may be shut on a Sunday.

This is the moment to say if you have never driven on a single-track road. It is not a confession. It is information the desk can use. They will tell you where the passing places are, and how often you will need them.

Where the ground work sits behind the counter

The desk you stand at is the visible end of a long chain of ground handling. Somewhere behind it, someone has logged the flight, moved the bags, and released the aircraft. The same principle holds at a Hebridean airport: the desk is the last link, not the first.

The paperwork, and what to read before you sign

There will be a form. It is short, but three lines on it decide what happens if something goes wrong.

The first is the excess. This is the amount you pay before the insurer pays anything. On a single-track road with passing places, a scraped wing mirror is not unlikely. Know the number.

The second is the fuel policy. Full-to-full is the fairest. Full-to-empty sounds convenient and rarely is, because the rate charged for the missing fuel is set by the company, not by the pump.

The third is the named driver. If a second person will drive, they must be on the form. An unnamed driver is an uninsured driver, and on an island that is a long way from a replacement car.

Sign, take your copy, and put it in the glovebox, not your pocket. You will want it at the compound.

The walk to the compound

At a small airport the compound is rarely more than two hundred metres away. Sometimes it is a fenced yard beside the terminal. Sometimes it is across the apron, and you walk along a marked path with a high-visibility vest the desk has given you.

This walk is useful. It is the only time you will see the car in daylight before you drive it. Look at it as you approach. Note the colour, the plate, and which side the fuel filler is on. On a left-hand-drive hire car imported from the mainland, the filler may not be where you expect.

What should you check before the key turns?

Walk around the car once, slowly, in the order the desk's diagram shows. Start at the driver's door and go clockwise.

Check the tyres, all four, and the spare. On island roads, a sidewall cut from a sharp edge of tarmac is the most common damage. Check the windscreen for chips, and photograph any you find. Check the lights, front and rear, and ask someone to stand behind while you test the brakes.

Inside, check the fuel gauge against the figure on the form. Check the mileage. Check that the warning triangle, the hi-vis vest, and the jack are present. On a single-track road you may need the triangle before you need the spare.

If anything is wrong, go back to the desk before you drive away. After you drive away, the conversation becomes harder.

The key, and the first mile

Turn the key. Let the engine settle. Set the mirrors, and remember that on a single-track road you will use them more than the windscreen.

Drive out of the compound slowly. The first mile from an island airport is usually a straight road with a speed limit you will not reach, and a junction where you must decide which way to turn. Decide before you leave the desk, not at the junction.

When you bring it back

Return is the mirror of collection, with one difference: you are now responsible for the fuel and the cleanliness. Fill the tank at the nearest station, keep the receipt, and allow twenty minutes more than you think you need. At a small airport, the desk may close between flights, and a key returned to a closed desk is a key returned late.

Park where you were told, hand the key to the person at the counter, and ask for a receipt for the fuel and a copy of the condition report. Then walk to the gate. The car has done its job. So have you.