The short answer
If someone else is flying, dropping them off is the cheap option: £8 for up to 10 minutes. If you're flying, a lift there and back costs £20 in charges, or nothing at all if you use Long Stay 2's free hour (check winter opening). Parking yourself costs more than that from the first day: Mid Stay 3 is £50 for 24 hours and £395 for a week if you just turn up. 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 East Midlands Airport's own published charges on 26 Oct 2026, and the car park prices on 25 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 East Midlands: the key numbers
- Drop-off charge
- £8 for up to 10 minutes at the Rapid Drop Off
- A lift there and back
- £20 in charges Dropped off at the Rapid Drop Off (up to 10 minutes) and collected from Short Stay 1 (up to 30 minutes)
- Using the free option
- Free Dropped off and collected using Long Stay 2's free hour, each time (a 15 to 20 minute walk or a shuttle ride from the terminal)
- Cheapest official car park, a week
- £395 in Mid Stay 3, turn-up price
- Booking ahead
- Up to 76% on an 8-day stay in January 2027, says the airport
- Checked
- drop-off charge 26 Oct 2026 against www.eastmidlandsairport.com; car park prices 25 Oct 2026 (see the East Midlands 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 | £20 | Free | £50 Mid Stay 3 |
| Three days | £20 | Free | £135 Mid Stay 3 |
| A week | £20 | Free | £395 Mid Stay 3 |
| Two weeks | £20 | Free | £826 Short Stay 1 |
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 25 Oct 2026. The East Midlands parking guide has every car park and its full price list.
If you're getting a lift
A lift costs £20 in charges. Dropped off at the Rapid Drop Off (up to 10 minutes) and collected from Short Stay 1 (up to 30 minutes). The Rapid Drop Off is for drop-offs only, so the collection is priced at Short Stay 1. Collect from Long Stay 2's free hour instead and the lift costs only the £8 drop-off, but your passenger has a 15 to 20 minute walk or a shuttle ride to the car. The airport says Long Stay closes over winter, and last winter the shuttle stopped from 1 November, so check before relying on it. It does mean two return trips to the airport for whoever drives you, which is the real cost of a lift. East Midlands is a pay-later airport: nothing is paid at the zone, so pay by 23:59 the day after your visit (see how to pay at East Midlands). The East Midlands drop-off guide has the exact rules.
Where you drop off at East Midlands
The Rapid Drop Off lanes are directly outside the terminal and fully barrierless — and signed for drop-off only. You drive through without stopping and pay afterwards.
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 East Midlands is Mid Stay 3, at £395 if you turn up without booking. East Midlands Airport says pre-booking can save up to 76%, a figure it bases on an 8-day stay in January 2027 (some of its page titles say 75%). It also says turn-up spaces are limited and it cannot guarantee you one, and it strongly recommends pre-booking, especially at peak times.
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 East Midlands
East Midlands's drop-off charge has risen from £5 in 2021 to £8, up about 60%. Each rise makes a lift a little dearer, but at £20 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 Rapid Drop Off is drop-off only — don't use it to collect. For pick-ups, East Midlands points drivers to Short Stay 1 at £12 for up to 30 minutes and £14 for up to an hour (also where Blue Badge holders get 30 minutes free), or wait out a delay in Long Stay 2's free hour with a walk or shuttle across. 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 East Midlands: your questions
Is it cheaper to park or get dropped off at East Midlands?
Getting dropped off is cheaper on charges: a lift there and back costs £20, or nothing at all if you use Long Stay 2's free hour (check winter opening). Even the cheapest official car park costs £50 for 24 hours and £395 for a week at turn-up prices.
How much is drop-off at East Midlands?
£8 for up to 10 minutes at the Rapid Drop Off. The free alternative is Long Stay 2: 60 minutes free; a 15–20 minute walk, or the free shuttle bus, which the airport suspended from November 2025 to March 2026, so check whether it runs this winter.
How much is a week of parking at East Midlands Airport?
£395 in Mid Stay 3 if you turn up without booking. That's our sum from the airport's published day rates, checked on 25 Oct 2026.
Is pre-booked parking at East Midlands cheaper than turning up?
East Midlands Airport says pre-booking can save up to 76%, a figure it bases on an 8-day stay in January 2027 (some of its page titles say 75%). It also says turn-up spaces are limited and it cannot guarantee you one, and it strongly recommends pre-booking, especially at peak times.
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.