What changed
Stansted's Express Set Down changed to £10 for up to 15 minutes and £28 for over 15 minutes.
Took effect 19 Mar 2026; see the change log. The figures below are from today's data, checked against London Stansted Airport's own pages on 26 Oct 2026.
The key facts
- Airport
- London Stansted
- The charge now
- £10 for up to 15 minutes
- Before
- £7 (the charge in 2025)
- The rise
- +43%
- Took effect
- 19 Mar 2026
- Source
- www.stanstedairport.com
- Last checked
- 26 Oct 2026
How Stansted now compares
At £10, London Stansted is the joint most expensive of the 29 UK airports we track, £3.26 above the UK average of £6.74. See every airport ranked in the price index. Nothing is paid at the zone: pay by midnight the day after your visit, as set out in how to pay at Stansted.
| Nearby airport | Drop-off charge | Time allowed |
|---|---|---|
| London Luton | £9 | 12 minutes |
| London Gatwick | £10 | 10 minutes |
| London Southend | £8 | 10 minutes |
| Norwich | £8 | 20 minutes |
| London City | £8 | 5 minutes |
| London Heathrow | £7 | Charged per entry |
How to avoid paying it
London Stansted's free alternative is Mid Stay car park: First 60 minutes free — pick-up or drop-off — with a free shuttle taking about 7 minutes. The London Stansted drop-off guide has directions, pick-up rules and the Blue Badge position, and the free drop-off guide covers every airport.
What a lift there and back now costs
£23 in charges: dropped off at the Express Set Down (£10 for up to 15 minutes) and collected from the Short Stay Green or Blue car park within 30 minutes (£13). That is still less than a day in the cheapest official car park (£48 at turn-up prices). Park or drop off at Stansted compares the two by trip length.
Every change we've logged at Stansted
- 19 Mar 2026: Stansted's Express Set Down changed to £10 for up to 15 minutes and £28 for over 15 minutes.
All changes at every airport are in the change log. If you're writing about this, the figures are free to quote under CC BY 4.0: see the press page.
Stansted drop-off charge: your questions
How much is drop-off at London Stansted Airport now?
£10 for up to 15 minutes, checked against London Stansted Airport's own pages on 26 Oct 2026.
When did London Stansted raise its drop-off charge?
It took effect on 19 Mar 2026. Stansted's Express Set Down changed to £10 for up to 15 minutes and £28 for over 15 minutes.
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.