UK airport drop-off charges: the 2026 numbers
The average UK airport drop-off charge is £6.59, 27 of 29 airports now charge, and where fees have risen the typical increase is +39%. Every figure below is verified against the airport's own published page and dated; all of it is free to quote and reuse with attribution.
For journalists and researchers: figures verified 25 Aug 2026. Reuse under CC BY 4.0 with credit to airportdropoffcharges.co.uk. Press contact: hello@airportdropoffcharges.co.uk · full press kit.
14 ready-to-quote statistics
- 27 of 29 — UK airports now charge for drop-off. Only 2 — Cornwall Newquay and Humberside — remain free at the terminal.
- £6.59 — is the average drop-off charge across the 27 airports that charge (median £7).
- £10 — is the highest charge, at Gatwick & Stansted — the joint most-expensive kiss-and-fly fee in the UK.
- £1.60/min — is the steepest effective rate, at London City (£8 for 5 minutes).
- 1 — airport — London Heathrow — gives no free time at all: the charge applies from the moment you enter.
- +39% — is the typical increase where a fee has risen; no airport in the index has ever cut its charge.
- +80% — is the largest rise on record — London Luton, £5 in 2024 to £9.
- 7 — airports changed their charge in 2026 — Belfast International, Cardiff Wales, Leeds Bradford, London City, Liverpool John Lennon, London Luton and London Stansted — including London City charging for the first time, ending free drop-off at every London airport.
- 9 — airports enforce by ANPR camera and make you pay afterwards; a missed payment becomes a Parking Charge Notice of £80–£100.
- 16 — airports still take payment at a barrier or on exit, where overstaying raises the tariff rather than triggering a fine.
- £100 — is what Manchester charges for a pick-up attempted in its drop-off zone; Heathrow bans pick-ups from its zones entirely.
- 7 — airports publish no free drop-off alternative, so the charge is unavoidable there; the other 22 keep a free or cheaper option nearby.
- £1 — is the cheapest charge among airports that levy one, at City of Derry.
- 3 — of the six London airports exempt registered Blue Badge holders — Heathrow, Gatwick and London City; Stansted and Luton charge them regardless. Blue Badge arrangements vary at every airport.
Downloadable charts
Free to use with attribution to airportdropoffcharges.co.uk. Right-click to save, or embed the image with a link back.
Prefer the raw numbers? The whole dataset is a free download: JSON · CSV (CC BY 4.0).
How to cite this data
Airport Drop-Off Charges, UK Airport Drop-Off Charges Dataset, verified 25 Aug 2026, airportdropoffcharges.co.uk. The dataset is openly licensed (CC BY 4.0) and available as JSON and CSV, mirrored on GitHub, Kaggle and Hugging Face, with an endpoint for AI assistants. Every fee change is logged in the public change log.
Statistics & data: your questions
What is the average UK airport drop-off charge?
£6.59 across the 27 airports that charge, as of 25 Aug 2026. The median is £7.
Which UK airport has the most expensive drop-off charge?
Gatwick & Stansted, at £10. By effective rate, London City is steepest at £1.60 per minute.
How many UK airports charge for drop-off?
27 of the 29 we track. Only 2 — Cornwall Newquay and Humberside — are free at the terminal.
How much have airport drop-off charges risen?
Where a fee has risen, the typical increase is +39%. The largest on record is London Luton's, +80%.
Can I reuse these statistics?
Yes — the dataset is licensed CC BY 4.0. Quote any figure with attribution to airportdropoffcharges.co.uk. JSON and CSV downloads and downloadable charts are provided.
Method & corrections
Every figure 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 work and who maintains it.
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).