Chautauqua County Airport Shuttle Service

The lake, the Institution and the southern tier

The county splits roughly into three for trip planning. The lakeshore towns of Dunkirk and Fredonia sit closest to Buffalo on the I-90, about seventy minutes out. Chautauqua Lake and the Institution grounds are further inland to the south. Jamestown, the largest city in the county, sits at the bottom of the lake and is the longest run we make on the American side.

Jamestown does not have its own route page, so book it from here or call dispatch directly. The same applies to Bemus Point, Mayville, Lakewood and the smaller lake communities.

• Dunkirk and the harbor
• Fredonia and SUNY Fredonia
• Chautauqua Institution and Mayville
• Bemus Point, Lakewood and the Chautauqua Lake shore
• Jamestown and the National Comedy Center
• Westfield and the Lake Erie wine trail

Arriving for the Chautauqua Institution season

The Institution runs a nine week summer season, and most guests arrive on a Saturday for a week or longer. That concentrates demand into a few hours on a few days, so book the transfer as soon as your flight is ticketed rather than in the week before you travel.

We drop at the main gate on Route 394. Guests staying inside the grounds should note that vehicle access is restricted during the season, so the gate is normally where the ride ends and a short walk or the internal tram takes over. Tell dispatch which hotel or house you are staying at and the driver will get you as close as the gate policy allows.

Groups, families and the return leg

A large share of Chautauqua County traffic is families and groups travelling together, and on a trip this long the per vehicle rate is what makes it work. A party of six in one vehicle pays one fare, not six.

Book the return at the same time. Departures out of the county need an early start to clear the drive plus airport time, and having the return already on the same confirmation avoids arranging it from a lake house with patchy signal.

Winter travel and lake effect

The I-90 corridor south of Buffalo takes some of the heaviest lake effect snow in the country, and the Dunkirk to Buffalo stretch can be the worst of it. In winter we build extra time into the pickup rather than risk the flight, and dispatch will call you the evening before if conditions suggest moving the pickup earlier.

If a storm closes the Thruway outright, we contact you rather than leaving you to discover it at the door. Flight tracking runs on the inbound side too, so a diverted or delayed arrival does not leave a driver gone.