The short answer
If someone else is flying, dropping them off is the cheap option: £7 for up to 15 minutes. If you're flying, a lift there and back costs £14 in charges, or nothing at all if you use Long Stay's free hour. Parking yourself costs more than that from the first day: Long Stay is £35 for 24 hours and £125 for a week if you just turn up. Aberdeen Airport says booking ahead can save up to 50% on turn-up prices. Parking is the better call when nobody can do the two return trips, or when you'd rather have the car waiting when you land.
The drop-off charge was checked against Aberdeen Airport's own published charges on 26 Oct 2026, and the car park prices on 3 Oct 2026. Totals for longer stays are our sums from the airport's published day rates. Pre-booked prices change daily, so we link to them rather than quote them.
Park or drop off at Aberdeen: the key numbers
- Drop-off charge
- £7 for up to 15 minutes at the Express Drop-off
- A lift there and back
- £14 in charges Dropped off and collected at the Express Drop-off (15 minutes each time)
- Using the free option
- Free Dropped off and collected using Long Stay's free hour, plus the free shuttle bus each way
- Cheapest official car park, a week
- £125 in Long Stay, turn-up price
- Booking ahead
- Up to 50% on turn-up prices
- Checked
- drop-off charge 26 Oct 2026 against www.aberdeenairport.com; car park prices 3 Oct 2026 (see the Aberdeen parking guide)
Lift or park: the cost by trip length
A lift costs the same however long you're away; parking adds up with every day.
| Away for | Lift there and back | Using the free option | Cheapest car park, turn-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 hours | £14 | Free | £35 Long Stay |
| Three days | £14 | Free | £80 Long Stay |
| A week | £14 | Free | £125 Long Stay |
| Two weeks | £14 | Free | £195 Long Stay |
Car park figures are the lowest turn-up price for each stay among the car parks you can drive into without booking and get to the terminal from, worked out from the airport's day rates and checked on 3 Oct 2026. The Aberdeen parking guide has every car park and its full price list.
If you're getting a lift
A lift costs £14 in charges. Dropped off and collected at the Express Drop-off (15 minutes each time). Long Stay is free for the first hour. It does mean two return trips to the airport for whoever drives you, which is the real cost of a lift. The Aberdeen drop-off guide has the exact rules.
Where you drop off at Aberdeen
The Express Drop-off areas are directly outside the main terminal building on the upper forecourt.
If you'd rather park
Parking buys you independence: no one has to fit your flight times around their day, and the car is there when you land. The cheapest official option for a week at Aberdeen is Long Stay, at £125 if you turn up without booking. Aberdeen Airport says booking ahead can save up to 50% on turn-up prices. At the full 50%, Long Stay £125 for a week would be £62.50: that is our sum, not a price the airport publishes.
Taxi fares depend on where you start, so we don't quote them. If you're weighing one up, the sum is two fares against the parking totals above.
Why the sums have shifted at Aberdeen
Aberdeen's drop-off charge has risen from £5.50 in 2025 to £7, up about 27%. Each rise makes a lift a little dearer, but at £14 it would take a much bigger rise for a lift to cost more in charges than even a day's parking. Every UK rise is tracked in the price index and the change log.
Don't forget the pick-up
The same Express zone handles quick pick-ups at the same £7 tariff — but the airport's own cheaper suggestion is the Long Stay: free for up to an hour, where you can wait for your passenger or ride the free shuttle to the terminal to meet them. See the UK pick-up charges guide for how other airports handle collections.
Compare pre-booked parking prices
We list every parking partner that covers this airport, Airparks, Holiday Extras and YourParkingSpace, in alphabetical order, not by what they pay us. These are affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you, and it never affects our charges data.
Nearby airports
Park or drop off at Aberdeen: your questions
Is it cheaper to park or get dropped off at Aberdeen?
Getting dropped off is cheaper on charges: a lift there and back costs £14, or nothing at all if you use Long Stay's free hour. Even the cheapest official car park costs £35 for 24 hours and £125 for a week at turn-up prices.
How much is drop-off at Aberdeen?
£7 for up to 15 minutes at the Express Drop-off. The free alternative is Long Stay car park: 1 hour free, shuttle to terminal.
How much is a week of parking at Aberdeen Airport?
£125 in Long Stay if you turn up without booking. That's our sum from the airport's published day rates, checked on 3 Oct 2026. The airport says booking ahead can save up to 50% on turn-up prices.
Is pre-booked parking at Aberdeen cheaper than turning up?
Aberdeen Airport says booking ahead can save up to 50% on turn-up prices.
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.