Two UK airports have tied for the country’s steepest drop-off charge. London Gatwick and London Stansted both charge £10 just to pull up outside departures.
That’s according to a new RAC survey of the UK’s 20 busiest airports, published 23 July 2026. Gatwick’s £10 buys you 10 minutes.
Stansted’s buys you 15.
It’s the kind of charge that catches a lot of families out. You’re not parking, you’re not using any facilities, you’re just stopping the car for long enough to hug someone goodbye and unload a suitcase.
Why has dropping someone off got so much more expensive?
The RAC found that 16 of the UK’s 20 busiest airports raised their drop-off fee this year.
The average charge is up £1.70, a jump of 33%, to £7. A few years ago, plenty of airports let you pull up for nothing.
That window is closing fast.
Drop-off charges have quietly become a proper revenue line for airports, and this year’s rises show just how far that trend has run.
Four airports held their fee steady this year: Liverpool, East Midlands, Belfast City and Southampton. Everywhere else, the price crept up again.
For a family doing a couple of airport runs a year, that steady drift adds a genuine line to the cost of a holiday, on top of parking, fuel and the flights themselves.
How much does it cost at the UK's busiest airports?
According to the RAC survey, published 23 July 2026, here’s what the ten priciest drop-off charges look like right now.
| Airport | Fee | Time window |
|---|---|---|
| Gatwick | £10 | 10 minutes |
| Stansted | £10 | 15 minutes |
| Edinburgh | £8.50 | 10 minutes |
| Bristol | £8.50 | 10 minutes |
| Leeds Bradford | £8 | 10 minutes |
| London City | £8 | 5 minutes |
| Bournemouth | £8 | 30 minutes |
| Southampton | £7 | 20 minutes |
| Liverpool | £6 | 10 minutes |
| Manchester | £5.50 | 5 minutes |
Look closely at that table and London City stands out. £8 for just 5 minutes works out at £1.60 a minute, the steepest rate of any UK airport, and until recently it was the only major airport that let you drop off for free.
Manchester’s £5.50 comes with a similarly tight 5 minute window, so it’s worth having your goodbyes done before you even reach the barrier.
Which airports still let you drop off for free?
Not every airport has followed the crowd. Birmingham is now the only major UK airport with a genuinely free drop-off, giving you the first 10 minutes at no charge.
Newcastle goes further still, offering up to 90 minutes free, though you’ll need to use a remote waiting zone rather than pulling up right outside the terminal.
That trade-off is worth knowing about if you’re travelling with someone who needs more help getting into the airport, since 90 minutes gives you far more breathing room than a 5 or 10 minute window elsewhere.
Worth knowing before you rely on either: overstay fines at UK airports can run as high as £100, so set a timer rather than trust your own sense of how long a goodbye takes.
Why doesn't this happen at European airports?
Here’s the bit that will annoy you most. None of the EU’s ten busiest airports charge for drop-off at all.
Neither do Dubai or Istanbul, two of the world’s busiest hubs.
The UK is something of an outlier on this one. Elsewhere, a quick kerbside goodbye is still just that, free.
It makes the UK’s charges feel less like a standard airport running cost and more like a deliberate choice, one that other major aviation markets simply haven’t made.
How to avoid the fee without missing your flight
The simplest fix is knowing before you travel. If you’re flying from Birmingham or Newcastle, use the free window and you’ll pay nothing at all.
Elsewhere, check the airport’s exact tariff before you set off. At some airports, a short-stay or mid-stay car park works out cheaper than the drop-off zone once you’re there more than a few minutes, especially if you want to walk in and see someone through to security.
If a station or coach link is realistic, dropping someone at the nearest transport hub instead of the terminal can dodge the charge entirely.
Some travellers now do the maths the other way round too, working out whether it’s actually cheaper to book a taxi or ride-share to the terminal than to pay the drop-off fee twice, once on the way there and once picking someone up.
Picking someone up rather than dropping them off is where these fees really add up, since flights land late and plans change, and you can end up circling or waiting well past any free window. A cheap short-stay space, booked in advance online, is often the safer bet if you’re collecting rather than dropping off.
And whichever option you use, set a phone timer the moment you arrive. The drop-off fee is annoying.
The £100 overstay fine on top of it is the one that actually stings.
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Disclaimer: Content on this page is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research before making a financially related decision.
