Gatwick drop-off charges hit £10 as airport increases its driver fee

London Gatwick is raising its charge for dropping off passengers outside the terminal to £10 — far higher than at any other UK airport.

Britain’s second-busiest blames the increase on the doubling of its business rates bill. The current fee is £7, which is typical for most major UK airports, but it will rise by 43 per cent from 6 January 2026.

A spokesperson for Gatwick said: “This increase in the drop-off charge is not a decision we have taken lightly; however, we are facing a number of increasing costs, including a more than doubling of our business rates in the recent Budget.

“Passengers can still be dropped off for free in our long-stay car parks, with a free shuttle bus to the terminal. Blue Badge holders remain exempt from the charge.

“We also have excellent public transport connectivity at the airport, with passengers able to connect directly with more than 120 train stations, while many local bus routes serve the airport 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“The increase in the drop-off charge will support wider efforts to encourage greater use of public transport, helping limit the number of cars and reduce congestion at the entrance to our terminals, alongside funding a number of sustainable transport initiatives – such as our £1m investment in new and enhanced Metrobus routes in 2025.”

Gatwick has always been the best-connected in the UK for public transport; it was built adjacent to the main London–Brighton railway line specifically for good surface links.

Trains run to London every few minutes, with frequent services to Brighton and the Sussex coast, as well as to Reading for onward journeys to Wales and the west of England.

But the surge in the fee is sure to spark fury among motorists. The £10 fee represents a doubling in less than five years; when the charge was first introduced in April 2021, it was £5. The cost increased in January 2024 to £6, and to £7 in May this year.

The drop-off charge will be almost as much as some of the cheapest airfares from Gatwick. On the day the £10 fee begins, Wizz Air has flights to Krakow in Poland for £13.99.

RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis said: “The words ‘Happy New Year’ are unlikely to be uttered by drivers dropping off friends and family at Gatwick in January.

“The airport will have the unenviable record of being the most expensive for anyone dropping off by car by a whole £3. But at least the increased fee isn’t being introduced before Christmas. We have to hope other airports don’t follow suit next year.

“Drivers tell us the main reason they use drop-off facilities at airports is to help people with bulky or heavy luggage – something that can be incredibly impractical on public transport, especially if elderly relatives or young children are in tow.

“Sadly, it looks like drivers are going to have to get used to coughing up increasingly exorbitant sums for doing so. It’s worth remembering such fees are almost unheard of at major airports elsewhere in Europe.”

Taxis and ride-hailing services such as Uber are likely to add the charge to passengers’ bills.

Heathrow recently announced that it would raise its own drop-off fee to £7 from the start of 2026.

Drop-off fees were first introduced following the attempted terrorist attack on the terminal at Glasgow in 2007, requiring airport forecourts to be reconfigured.

The last major airport without a charge, London City, plans to introduce one by the end of the year.

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