UK Airports Now Charge Up to £1.60 a Minute to Drop Off a Passenger

Pulling up outside a UK airport to drop off a friend or relative used to cost nothing. In 2026, the same five minutes at London City Airport costs £8, working out at £1.60 a minute, the steepest drop-off rate at any UK airport. Nationally, four in five drivers who have used a set-down zone in the past year call the charges a rip-off, according to research by the RAC.

The most expensive airports for a five minute stop

London City Airport began charging for its drop-off zone on 6 January 2026, setting a fee of £8 for the first five minutes, rising by £1 a minute after that, with a maximum stay of ten minutes. That single change pushed LCY to the top of the UK’s drop-off cost table on a per-minute basis, ahead of every other airport in the country.

London Gatwick raised its charge on the same day, adding £3 to reach £10 for ten minutes across both its North and South terminals, working out at £1 a minute. Manchester Airport now charges £5 for a five-minute stay at terminals one, two and three, also £1 a minute. Bristol Airport charges £8.50 for ten minutes, and Southend charges £8 for ten minutes, a high price for an airport that handles a fraction of the passengers of the UK’s biggest hubs.

Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, actually sits mid-table on a per-minute basis. It charges £7 for ten minutes outside each of its four terminals, 70p a minute, the same rate as Luton and Leeds Bradford. Liverpool John Lennon charges £6 for ten minutes, and Stansted, which extended its allowance to fifteen minutes in 2025, charges £7 for that longer window, working out as the cheapest of the major airports at 46p a minute.

Why airports keep raising the price of a quick stop

Airports say the income helps pay for terminal upkeep and future investment at a time when business rates and operating costs are climbing. Consumer groups take a different view. Clive Wratten of the Business Travel Association told the BBC that airports were “pulling the easiest revenue lever” available to them.

The economics are hard to argue with from the airport’s side. A barrier, a camera and automatic number plate recognition software cost relatively little to install and run, and every car that drives through the zone becomes a paying customer, whether it stops for two minutes or ten. With millions of passengers moving through the biggest UK airports each year, even a modest per-vehicle charge adds up to a large annual sum, and RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis has pointed out that the burden falls hardest on people with heavy luggage, young children or older relatives who cannot easily walk from a distant free car park.

“To have to pay £5, £6 or even £7 for the briefest of stops to simply open the boot and take some luggage out for a friend or loved one is bordering on the ridiculous,” Dennis said. He also flagged that airports with poor public transport links leave drivers with little real choice but to pay. “If the alternatives are non-existent, expensive or unreliable then what choice do people really have?”

Passengers who booked flights in early 2026 and locked in a car park price months ahead now find the drop-off zone next to it has quietly become more expensive by the time they travel. There is no requirement for airports to give advance notice of a rise, and no cap on how far the per-minute rate can climb. A driver who overshoots the paid window by even a minute or two, easy to do when a passenger is struggling with a heavy case or a child needs strapping into a car seat, can find themselves charged for the next full pricing band rather than a small top-up.

The RAC’s survey found that the most common reason drivers give for using the drop-off zone rather than a cheaper alternative is luggage. Travelling with a large suitcase, a pushchair or an older relative who struggles to walk any distance makes a car park several hundred metres from the terminal impractical, even when it costs a fraction of the drop-off charge. That leaves exactly the passengers least able to walk further paying the highest price for the convenience of stopping close to the door.

The airports that still let you drop off for free

Only a small number of UK airports have held out against charging for a drop-off. Birmingham Airport and Newquay Airport both allow ten free minutes in their set-down zones. Until December 2025, Newcastle Airport belonged to this group too, before it scrapped its free zone in favour of an off-airport set-down point served by a shuttle bus.

East Midlands Airport charges £5 for fifteen minutes, and Teesside charges £2.50 for ten minutes, both among the cheapest paid options. Norwich Airport allows a generous thirty minutes for £6, working out at just 20p a minute, the best value of any airport that does charge.

Cardiff and Inverness also remain free for drop-offs, though passenger numbers at both airports are far smaller than at the London and Manchester hubs driving most of the price rises across the country.

How to avoid paying the charge

Most airports operate a free or cheaper short-stay car park a short walk from the terminal, an option that takes longer but avoids the drop-off fee entirely. Check your airport’s website before you travel, as some sites make the free car park difficult to find on a page designed to steer visitors toward the paid zone.

Where public transport exists, it often works out cheaper over a full return trip. Luton and Stansted both sit on direct rail lines, and most major airports run coach or bus links from nearby town centres. For airports with weak public transport connections, ask whoever is dropping you off to park briefly in a free zone away from the terminal and walk the final stretch with your bags, rather than driving directly to the terminal forecourt.

If you do use a paid drop-off zone, note that Heathrow and Gatwick no longer accept payment in person at the barrier. Both require payment online through the airport’s official website or by phone before or shortly after you arrive, and missing that window can trigger a much larger penalty charge notice sent to your registered keeper. Set a reminder to pay the moment you arrive, and keep the payment confirmation until you are certain no penalty notice follows.

Some airports run a free or low-cost meet and greet zone for passengers arriving on foot or by public transport, separate from the vehicle drop-off point, so check whether the person you are collecting can walk a short distance to a pickup point outside the charging zone. Ride-share and taxi drivers often use a separate rank with its own pricing structure, which can work out cheaper than a private car paying the general drop-off tariff for a single journey. If you regularly collect or drop off the same person, ask the airport directly whether it offers a season ticket or discounted multi-use pass for the set-down zone, as several airports now offer these to frequent users but do not always advertise them prominently on their main website.

Finally, always photograph the time you enter and leave a paid zone if your phone has a dashcam or timestamped camera feature. Disputes over whether a driver actually exceeded the free period are common, and having your own timestamped record makes it far easier to challenge a charge you believe was applied in error.

Sources:

• Aerospace Global News: Gatwick and City now most expensive UK airports to drop off passengers
• Fleet News: Drivers warned of increasing airport drop-off charges
• BBC News: airport drop-off charges