The short answer
If someone else is flying, dropping them off is the cheap option: £10 for up to 10 minutes. If you're flying, a lift there and back costs £18 in charges, or nothing at all if you use Long Stay's free 2 hours. Parking yourself costs more than that from the first day: Long Stay is £38 for 24 hours and £230 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 London Gatwick Airport's own published charges on 25 Oct 2026, and the car park prices on 17 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 Gatwick: the key numbers
- Drop-off charge
- £10 for up to 10 minutes at the drop-off zones
- A lift there and back
- £18 in charges Dropped off at the drop-off zones (£10, up to 10 minutes) and collected from the Short Stay express pick-up bays within 30 minutes (£8), because the airport says pick-ups should take place in Short Stay
- Using the free option
- Free Dropped off and collected using Long Stay's free 2 hours, taking the free shuttle bus each time
- Cheapest official car park, a week
- £230 in Long Stay, turn-up price
- Booking ahead
- Up to 60% says the airport, without saying against what
- Checked
- drop-off charge 25 Oct 2026 against www.gatwickairport.com; car park prices 17 Oct 2026 (see the Gatwick 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 | £18 | Free | £38 Long Stay |
| Three days | £18 | Free | £102 Long Stay |
| A week | £18 | Free | £230 Long Stay |
| Two weeks | £18 | Free | £454 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 17 Oct 2026. The Gatwick parking guide has every car park and its full price list.
If you're getting a lift
A lift costs £18 in charges. Dropped off at the drop-off zones (£10, up to 10 minutes) and collected from the Short Stay express pick-up bays within 30 minutes (£8), because the airport says pick-ups should take place in Short Stay. Long Stay is free for up to 2 hours, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal every 10 to 12 minutes, 24 hours a day. It does mean two return trips to the airport for whoever drives you, which is the real cost of a lift. Gatwick is a pay-later airport: nothing is paid at the zone, so pay by midnight the day after you use the zone (see how to pay at Gatwick). The London Gatwick drop-off guide has the exact rules.
Where you drop off at Gatwick
Both drop-off zones are barrier-free ANPR areas on the lower level of each terminal — no ticket to take and nothing to pay on site.
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 Gatwick is Long Stay, at £230 if you turn up without booking. Gatwick says pre-booking can save up to 60%, but none of the pages we checked say what that is measured against, for which car park or for which dates. Its roll-up price list says it is cheaper to book Short Stay, Premium Short Stay and Long Stay in advance, and advises booking more than 24 hours before you arrive to secure the best rates and guarantee a space.
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 Gatwick
Gatwick's drop-off charge has risen from £7 in 2025 to £10, up about 43%. Each rise makes a lift a little dearer, but at £18 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.
Or leave the car at home
Gatwick Airport station is at the South Terminal, about a five-minute walk from the concourses, with the non-stop Gatwick Express to London Victoria plus Southern and Thameslink services. For some trips that takes the park-or-drop-off question off the table.
Don't forget the pick-up
Don't use the drop-off zone for pick-ups. Gatwick's express pick-up areas are inside the Short Stay car parks — Car Park 6 (Level 4) at North Terminal and Car Park 3 (ground floor) at South Terminal — at standard Short Stay rates, and you must stay with the car, as unattended vehicles can receive a Parking Charge Notice. The cheaper option is the Long Stay: free for up to 2 hours, with a shuttle to both terminals. 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 Gatwick: your questions
Is it cheaper to park or get dropped off at Gatwick?
Getting dropped off is cheaper on charges: a lift there and back costs £18, or nothing at all if you use Long Stay's free 2 hours. Even the cheapest official car park costs £38 for 24 hours and £230 for a week at turn-up prices.
How much is drop-off at Gatwick?
£10 for up to 10 minutes at the drop-off zones. The free alternative is Long Stay car parks: 2 hours free, with a shuttle bus every 10 to 12 minutes that takes about 10 to 12 minutes to the terminals.
How much is a week of parking at Gatwick Airport?
£230 in Long Stay if you turn up without booking. That's our sum from the airport's published day rates, checked on 17 Oct 2026.
Is pre-booked parking at Gatwick cheaper than turning up?
Gatwick says pre-booking can save up to 60%, but none of the pages we checked say what that is measured against, for which car park or for which dates. Its roll-up price list says it is cheaper to book Short Stay, Premium Short Stay and Long Stay in advance, and advises booking more than 24 hours before you arrive to secure the best rates and guarantee a space.
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.