A signed fit to fly certificate, often needed at short notice and issued the same day.
Unhurried care from a GMC-registered GP
6am to 10pm, seven days a week
Prescriptions, sick notes and referral letters included
Your NHS records in the room, with your consent
Care led personally by Dr Khan
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Airlines can refuse boarding without medical clearance if you have been recently unwell, have a visible condition, or are travelling after an illness or procedure.
Most fit to fly requests come at short notice. Same-day appointments are usually available, including evenings and weekends, and the certificate is issued within about ten minutes of your consultation ending.
Airlines routinely refuse passengers with active chickenpox and require confirmation that all lesions have crusted over. Send clear photographs before your appointment and the GP can confirm this on video.
Requirements differ considerably, and some airlines have their own form. Send it in advance if so.
Covering your condition, recovery and any medication you carry.
Digitally, within about ten minutes. Print a copy and keep a digital one.
This is the step that most often goes wrong. Airlines differ considerably, and several have their own form that must be used. A generic GP letter will not be accepted where the airline requires its own paperwork.
Your condition and where you are in recovery, the flight itself — duration, single or connecting, destination and altitude — what medication you are carrying, and whether the timing is genuinely safe.
The GP will check your dates against the recognised minimum intervals. Recent surgery, a pneumothorax, a heart attack or stroke, and severe anaemia all carry defined waiting periods before flying is safe. Those exist because cabin pressure at altitude is equivalent to being at around 6,000 to 8,000 feet, and that has real physiological consequences.
Send clear photographs in daylight before the appointment. Airlines require confirmation that every lesion has crusted over, and the GP can confirm that on video with good images. Photograph the trunk, face and any area still active.
Where you are inside a recognised interval, or genuinely not fit to fly, we will not certify that you are. The fee covers the assessment either way — which is why it is worth raising your situation and dates when you book, not on the day.
If you are genuinely not fit to fly, we will not certify that you are. The assessment fee applies either way, so please raise your situation at booking.
Anyone unwell enough to need medical support in the air needs airline medical clearance through their own process, not a GP letter.
The certificate is issued digitally, carrying the GP's name and GMC number so the airline can verify it.
Print at least two paper copies, keep one on your phone, and email one to yourself. Airport wifi is unreliable, phones run out of battery, and a gate agent asking for a document you cannot produce is the situation this whole exercise exists to avoid.
Put a paper copy in your hand luggage, not your hold bag.
Most airlines require the certificate to be dated within a specific period before departure — commonly a few days. If your trip is weeks away, getting the letter too early can make it worthless. Ask the airline what window they accept, and time the appointment accordingly.
For a return flight, check whether the same certificate covers both legs or whether the return needs its own.
Contact their medical department directly. Where they require MEDIF clearance, we can complete the clinical sections of their form — but the decision is theirs alone, and no GP can grant it.
Airline medical clearance is a separate process from a fit to fly letter, and people confuse the two costly ways round. If you need in-flight oxygen, a stretcher, a medical escort, or clearance for an unstable condition, that goes through the airline's own medical department on their MEDIF form and is decided by them. We can complete the clinical sections; we cannot grant the clearance, and no GP letter substitutes for it.
There are recognised minimum intervals after certain events, and we apply them. Recent pneumothorax, recent chest or abdominal surgery, a recent heart attack or stroke, and severe anaemia all carry defined waiting periods before flying is safe, measured in days to weeks. Where you are inside one, we will tell you rather than certify around it — cabin pressure at altitude is the reason those intervals exist.
A new cast has its own rule: most airlines require a cast applied within the previous 24 to 48 hours to be split along its length before you fly. That is a matter for whoever applied it, not for a letter.
We do not issue certificates of freedom from infectious disease for visa or immigration purposes. Those require a designated panel physician approved by the country concerned. We also cannot certify the result of a test we did not arrange.
This is the confusion that costs people flights, and it is worth being precise about.
A fit to fly certificate is a GP's opinion that you are well enough to travel as an ordinary passenger. That is what we issue.
MEDIF is airline medical clearance — a form assessed by the airline's own medical department, required if you need in-flight oxygen, a stretcher, a medical escort, or clearance for an unstable condition. We can complete the clinical sections; only the airline can grant the clearance. No GP letter substitutes for it, and turning up with one instead will not work.
There are recognised minimum intervals and they vary by procedure — broadly, a few days after simple keyhole surgery, longer after chest or abdominal surgery, and longer again after anything involving air being introduced into a body cavity.
These are not arbitrary. Cabin pressure at cruising altitude causes trapped gas to expand by roughly a third, which is a genuine problem after abdominal or chest surgery, and after eye surgery involving a gas bubble. The GP will check your dates against the relevant interval.
Usually, with one important condition. Most airlines require a cast applied within the previous 24 to 48 hours to be split along its full length before you fly, because swelling increases at altitude and a closed cast can compress the limb.
Splitting the cast is a job for whoever applied it — a fracture clinic or minor injuries unit — not something a letter can arrange. Airlines may also require an extra seat or leg elevation for a full leg cast.
Airlines refuse passengers with active chickenpox and require confirmation that all lesions have crusted over — typically around five to seven days after the last new spot appeared, though it varies.
Send clear daylight photographs before the appointment. If the crusting is not yet complete, no certificate can honestly be issued, so book close enough to departure for the answer to be useful but early enough to change plans if it is not.
See our pregnancy fit to fly service, which is a distinct assessment. Most airlines require a letter after 28 weeks and many will not carry you at all beyond 36 weeks for a single pregnancy, or 32 for twins. Cut-offs differ by airline and are strictly applied.
Almost always, where you have checked their requirement in advance and used their own form if they have one. The failures we see are nearly all people who did not check first, or who obtained a letter outside the airline's validity window.
No. Visa and immigration medicals require a designated panel physician approved by the destination country, and we are not one. We also cannot certify the result of a test we did not arrange.
Close enough to be inside the airline's validity window — often a few days — but not so close that there is no time to act if the answer is no. Three to five days before departure is usually the sweet spot, and same-day appointments are available seven days a week if the timing gets tight.
Clinically reviewed by Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan, GMC 7563469
Last reviewed
August 23, 2026
On this page
Ongoing
Time to be seen
Appointment length
Your NHS record in the room
Written treatment plan
Told when a test isn’t needed
Cost
Same day, usually
20 minutes
Yes, with your consent
Included
Yes, and told why
£40 for 20 minutes
Varies by practice
Typically 10 minutes
Yes, your full record
Not routinely
Usually
Free
Same day
Often 10 to 15 minutes
Usually not
Sometimes charged
Varies by provider
Often a subscription
Same-day access is usually available, from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. You choose a time that suits you rather than waiting on hold at 8am.
Yes. Care is led personally by Dr Mohammad Khan, so you are not passed between clinicians. Continuity is the point of a small practice: someone who knows your history and is listening attentively rather than working through a checklist.
Yes, with your consent. We can access your Summary Care Record during the consultation, so your current medications, allergies and significant history are in the room. That means fewer questions you have already answered elsewhere, and safer prescribing.
No. We are not here to replace GPs, only to support them. Your NHS practice remains responsible for your ongoing care, and with your consent we write to them after the consultation. We are useful when you need to be seen sooner, or want more time than a standard appointment allows.
Twenty unhurried minutes and a comprehensive assessment. A written treatment plan is included, along with any prescription, sick note or referral letter arising from the consultation, at no extra charge.
£40 for 20 minutes, self-pay. Membership is optional and never required. Priced for fairness, because we are not here to charge extortionate amounts for access to a doctor.
It means the diagnosis can usually be made from your history and photographs, and that treatment can be arranged safely without examining you. Where a condition is not marked treatable online, it is because examination is the diagnosis — listening to a chest, feeling an abdomen, examining an ear or a joint — or because a procedure or device is needed.
Yes, where there is a genuine bacterial infection — cellulitis, impetigo, bacterial urine infections, confirmed strep throat. We will also frequently tell you that you do not need one. Most sore throats, coughs, colds and earaches are viral, and an antibiotic gives you the side effects with none of the benefit.
If your problem turns out to be genuinely outside what we can do remotely, the doctor will tell you straight away, point you to the right service, and refund your fee in full. We would rather do that than fill twenty minutes to justify the charge.
Call 999 or go to A&E — do not book an online appointment and do not wait for a reply to an email. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, online or by phone, and can direct you to the right service.
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