In short
Airport Drop-Off Charges is an independent guide to what UK airports charge to drop someone off or pick them up. It's run by Rick, who founded it in 2026 and edits it. Every charge is read from the airport's own website, dated, and published as open data anyone can reuse. No airport owns, funds or checks it.
Why this site exists
Until a few years ago, dropping someone at most UK airports was free. Now 27 of the 29 UK airports we track charge for it, an average of £6.74, and the price changes often: we've logged 10 fee changes in 2026, and where a fee has risen the typical increase is 28%. Each airport sets its own rules on how long you get, how you pay and what happens if you forget, and the details tend to be split across several pages of its website.
Comparison articles go out of date quickly, and many still quote last year's price. This site exists to give one answer that's current: the charge, the time it buys, how and when to pay, the rules for collecting someone, and the free or cheaper option most airports offer but rarely signpost. Only Cornwall Newquay and Humberside are still free at the terminal.
Who runs it
Rick, founder and editor. Rick built the site and decides what goes on it, reviews every update, and publishes each change himself. He's the person who answers the email address below.
The checking and drafting are done with AI assistance, under strict rules: every figure must come from the airport's own wording, a gap is never filled with an estimate, and new pages are fact-checked independently before they're published. The methodology explains exactly how that works.
What the site covers
- 29 airport guides: the charge, where the zone is, overstay costs, pick-up rules, Blue Badge terms and the free alternative. Browse them from the airport directory.
- 9 how-to-pay pages for the airports where you pay after you leave, with each one's deadline and penalty. See how to pay a drop-off charge.
- 15 parking guides and 15 park-or-drop-off comparisons, built from the airports' own published car park prices. See parking prices compared.
- 9 dated fee-change reports and a public change log of every change and correction.
- Guides to free drop-off, pick-up charges, Blue Badge rules, coaches and minibuses, Christmas travel and the island airports, plus the price index and statistics.
How every figure is checked
Each charge is read from the airport's own website and stamped with the date it was checked. 28 of the 29 airports are confirmed that way. Cardiff Wales is the exception: its own website can't be read at the moment, so the figures are confirmed against published reports and labelled as such. All 29 are re-checked every quarter and whenever a change is announced or reported; the last full check was on 25 Oct 2026. Parking prices, payment deadlines and penalties are checked the same way, and any total we work out ourselves (a week's parking, say) is labelled as our sum.
If a figure can't be confirmed, it isn't published as fact. Charges can change without notice, so every page says when it was checked and links to the airport's own page.
Independence and how the site is paid for
The site isn't owned by, run for or paid by any airport, car park operator or booking site, and nobody pays to be listed, ranked or described. The charges come only from the airports' own published prices.
It's funded by affiliate links to parking and travel services. If you book through one, the site may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. These links are labelled where they appear, partners are listed in alphabetical order rather than by what they pay, and commission never affects the charges or the comparisons.
We don't take payments. Airport Drop-Off Charges isn't an airport or a parking operator and can't see, take or change a payment. To pay a charge, appeal a Parking Charge Notice or ask for a refund, use the airport's own website; each how-to-pay page links to it.
Corrections
Every change to the data is written down in public. The change log records fee rises as airports announce them, re-checks that add detail we didn't have, and corrections where we had something wrong — each dated and sourced. Nothing is quietly edited, and a correction names what was wrong rather than burying it.
A recent example, in full: 26 Oct 2026 — Corrected the cost of a lift there and back on our Gatwick and Birmingham parking guides. It now prices the collection where each airport says pick-ups should happen: Short Stay at Gatwick (£10 drop-off plus £8, so £18) and Car Park 5 at Birmingham (£8 plus £12, so £20), not the drop-off zone. Also redated Leeds Bradford's rise to £8 to 2 March 2026, when it took effect.
Spotted a price that's changed, or something we've got wrong? Email hello@airportdropoffcharges.co.uk with the airport and, if you can, a link to its page. It will be checked against the official source, fixed, and logged.
Open data
The whole dataset is free to reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence: journalists, researchers, developers and AI assistants can use it with a credit to airportdropoffcharges.co.uk. Download it as JSON or CSV, get it from GitHub, Kaggle or Hugging Face, embed the table, or connect to it over MCP. The data page explains every field.
Contact
Email hello@airportdropoffcharges.co.uk. Journalists can find ready-to-quote figures and charts on the press page; same-day replies are the aim.
About the site: your questions
Who runs Airport Drop-Off Charges?
Rick, its founder and editor. He reviews every update and publishes it himself. The site is independent: no airport or parking company owns or funds it.
Is this an official airport website?
No. It's an independent guide. The charges come from the airports' own published prices, but no airport runs or checks the site.
Can I pay my drop-off charge here?
No. We don't take payments. Pay on the airport's own website; each how-to-pay page links to it.
How do I report a wrong price?
Email hello@airportdropoffcharges.co.uk with the airport and, if you can, a link to its page. It will be checked against the official source, fixed, and the correction logged with its date.
Can I reuse the data?
Yes. The dataset is licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse it, including commercially, with a credit to airportdropoffcharges.co.uk.
Method & corrections
Every charge on this page is checked against the airport's own published charges and stamped with the date we checked it. We re-verify the full dataset quarterly, and after any reported change — see how we check every figure and who maintains the site.
Spotted an error? Email hello@airportdropoffcharges.co.uk — corrections are made visibly and dated. The dataset behind this page is free to reuse with attribution: JSON · CSV (CC BY 4.0) — about the data.