What changed
East Midlands Airport raised its Rapid Drop Off charge from £5 to £8 for up to 10 minutes (then £1 per minute to a 30-minute maximum), effective 3pm on 29 September 2026. The £5 fee had stood since 2021, so the charge is up 60% — and the time it covers is cut from 15 minutes to 10. Payment stays barrierless: pay online by midnight the day after your visit.
Took effect 29 Sep 2026; see the change log. The figures below are from today's data, checked against East Midlands Airport's own pages on 26 Oct 2026.
The key facts
- Airport
- East Midlands
- The charge now
- £8 for up to 10 minutes
- Before
- £5 (the charge in 2021)
- The rise
- +60%
- Took effect
- 29 Sep 2026
- Source
- www.eastmidlandsairport.com
- Last checked
- 26 Oct 2026
How East Midlands now compares
At £8, East Midlands is the joint 6th most expensive of the 29 UK airports we track, £1.26 above the UK average of £6.74. See every airport ranked in the price index. Nothing is paid at the zone: pay by 23:59 the day after your visit, as set out in how to pay at East Midlands.
| Nearby airport | Drop-off charge | Time allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Birmingham | £8 | 15 minutes |
| Manchester | £5.50 | 5 minutes |
| Leeds Bradford | £8 | 10 minutes |
| Humberside | Free | 15 minutes |
How to avoid paying it
East Midlands' 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. The East Midlands 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
£20 in charges: dropped off at the Rapid Drop Off (up to 10 minutes) and collected from Short Stay 1 (up to 30 minutes). That is still less than a day in the cheapest official car park (£50 at turn-up prices). Park or drop off at East Midlands compares the two by trip length.
Every change we've logged at East Midlands
- 24 Oct 2026: East Midlands corrected: picking up from Short Stay 1 costs £12 for up to 30 minutes and £14 for up to an hour, not the £6 we showed. The Rapid Drop Off charge (£8 for 10 minutes) and Long Stay 2's free hour are unchanged.
- 29 Sep 2026: East Midlands Airport raised its Rapid Drop Off charge from £5 to £8 for up to 10 minutes (then £1 per minute to a 30-minute maximum), effective 3pm on 29 September 2026. The £5 fee had stood since 2021, so the charge is up 60% — and the time it covers is cut from 15 minutes to 10. Payment stays barrierless: pay online by midnight the day after your visit.
- 25 Aug 2026: East Midlands corrected: the Rapid Drop Off is £5 for up to 15 minutes (we previously showed £6 for 30 minutes, a figure that belonged to Short Stay 1). The airport's page also confirms the lanes are drop-off only.
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.
East Midlands drop-off charge: your questions
How much is drop-off at East Midlands Airport now?
£8 for up to 10 minutes, checked against East Midlands Airport's own pages on 26 Oct 2026.
When did East Midlands raise its drop-off charge?
It took effect on 29 Sep 2026. East Midlands Airport raised its Rapid Drop Off charge from £5 to £8 for up to 10 minutes (then £1 per minute to a 30-minute maximum), effective 3pm on 29 September 2026. The £5 fee had stood since 2021, so the charge is up 60% — and the time it covers is cut from 15 minutes to 10. Payment stays barrierless: pay online by midnight the day after your visit.
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.