Heathrow drop-off charge in full
The £7 fee, the 10-minute cap and why there is no overstay price.
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✦Terminal drop-off charge
London Airport Drop-Off Charges Compared
From £7 at Heathrow to £10 at Gatwick and Stansted. What each fee buys, what happens when you overstay, and where you can still drop off free.
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- Cheapest to enter
- £7, Heathrow and Luton
- Most expensive
- £10, Gatwick and Stansted
- Most time included
- 15 minutes, Stansted
- Least time included
- 5 minutes, London City
- Highest penalty
- £100 at Gatwick and Stansted
- Longest free window
- Two hours, Gatwick and Luton Long Stay
A London airport drop-off charge is a fee for entering the kerbside zone outside a terminal, priced per visit rather than per minute parked. All six London airports now levy one, and in 2026 they range from £7 at Heathrow and Luton to £10 at Gatwick and Stansted.
The headline fee is the least useful number for deciding where you will get caught. What matters is the structure underneath it: how many minutes the fee includes, what happens the minute after that, and how large the penalty is when something goes wrong.
Those three variables move independently. Heathrow is cheap to enter and unforgiving once inside, because it has no overstay meter at all. Stansted costs more but includes half as long again and caps the damage. London City gives you five minutes, the shortest window of the six.
Enforcement is mostly automatic. At most of the six, cameras read number plates at the forecourt entrance and payment happens after you leave; check the signs on arrival for how each airport collects. That gap between the visit and the payment is where most penalties start.
What follows sets the six airports side by side on fee, included time and overstay rate, then compares the penalties, the free alternatives, and the exemptions each one recognises. The questions at the end cover the ones that decide real money: which airport is cheapest for a 20-minute stop, where a Blue Badge counts, and whether a booked transfer avoids any of it.
The six London airports, side by side
Six airports, six different answers. The table below is the whole comparison in one place, and the column that decides most outcomes is the third one rather than the second.
Read it as a pair of numbers rather than a price list. £7 for 10 minutes at Heathrow and £10 for 15 minutes at Stansted work out at roughly the same cost per minute. The difference is what happens at minute 11.
| Airport | Fee | Minutes included | After the included time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | £7 | 10 | No meter. A penalty, not a higher fee |
| Gatwick | £10 | 10 | £1 a minute, capped at £30 for 30 minutes |
| Stansted | £10 | 15 | Flat £28 for anything from 15 to 30 minutes |
| Luton | £7 | 10 | £1 a minute, up to 30 minutes |
| London City | £8 | 5 | £1 a minute, 10 minutes absolute maximum |
| Southend | £8 | 10 | £16 for anything from 10 to 30 minutes |
Which is cheapest depends entirely on how long you stop
Cheapest changes as the clock runs, which is why a single ranking misleads. For a genuine drop-and-go, Heathrow and Luton win on the £7 entry. Stay longer and the order inverts.
At 20 minutes the picture is unrecognisable. Gatwick meters you to £20. Stansted jumps to its £28 band the moment you pass 15 minutes, so a 16-minute stop and a 29-minute stop cost the same. Luton meters to £17. Heathrow does not offer a 20-minute option at all, because there is no price for it, only a penalty.
So the honest answer is that Stansted is the most forgiving airport to linger at up to 15 minutes, and the most punishing immediately after. Gatwick is the most predictable, because a pound a minute behaves the way people expect a car park to behave.
| Length of stop | Heathrow | Gatwick | Stansted | Luton |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | £7 | £10 | £10 | £7 |
| 10 minutes | £7 | £10 | £10 | £7 |
| 15 minutes | Penalty | £15 | £10 | £12 |
| 20 minutes | Penalty | £20 | £28 | £17 |
| 30 minutes | Penalty | £30 | £28 | £27 |
Penalties are where the real money is
Penalties dwarf the fees, and they vary more. Gatwick and Stansted issue £100 notices, Luton £95, and Heathrow £80. Each is reduced if paid within 14 days: Heathrow's to £40, Luton's to £55, and Gatwick's and Stansted's to £60.
A notice is triggered two ways: overstaying the maximum, or entering and never paying. The second is more common than the first where nothing at the exit reminds you, and the deadline usually falls the next day, when the journey is already forgotten.
One pattern is worth internalising. The gap between paying on time and paying late is roughly ten to fifteen times the fee itself. Nothing else about airport parking has that ratio.
| Airport | Penalty | If paid within 14 days |
|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | £80 | £40 |
| Gatwick | £100 | £60 |
| Stansted | £100 | £60 |
| Luton | £95 | £55 |
Where you can still drop off free
Free alternatives exist at four of the six, and they are not equivalent. The variable is how long you get and how far the bus has to travel.
Gatwick and Luton give the longest free window: two hours at Long Stay. Stansted gives 60 minutes free at Mid Stay, with a shuttle every 10 minutes. Heathrow gives 30 minutes, which sounds tight until you remember it is 30 minutes for a goodbye rather than a wait.
London City and Southend have no free car park option at all. Both instead sit directly on a rail line, which is the free alternative: the DLR at London City, and c2c a minute from the terminal at Southend.
- Stansted Mid Stay60 minutes free, shuttle every 10 minutes. Half the Long Stay window at Gatwick and Luton, but quicker to turn round.
- Gatwick Long StayTwo hours free, shuttle 10 to 12 minutes to either terminal.
- Luton Long StayTwo hours free, with Mid Stay offering 15 minutes for a quicker turnaround.
- Heathrow Long Stay30 minutes free, shuttle every 15 minutes, about a quarter of an hour door to door.
- London City and SouthendNo free car park. Both have a station at the terminal, which is the zero-cost route in.
Exemptions are not consistent, and Stansted is the outlier
Exemptions look similar until you read them. Emergency vehicles, motorcycles and official airport traffic are exempt nearly everywhere. Blue Badge treatment is where the airports diverge, and the divergence matters to the people it affects most.
Heathrow and most others give registered Blue Badge holders a full discount, but registration has to happen before the journey. London City requires registration before each visit rather than once. Stansted does not exempt Blue Badge holders at all.
Anyone travelling with a disabled passenger should check the specific airport rather than assume, because the assumption that a Blue Badge works everywhere is the single most expensive one on this page.
Two rules that apply everywhere
Rules differ airport by airport, but two hold at every one of them, and between them they explain most penalties.
The first is that the charge attaches on entry, not on stopping. Drive in, decide the queue is too long, drive out again, and you owe the fee. Whether the wheels stopped turning is not what the camera measures.
The second is that you cannot pay while you are still in the zone. Payment opens once you have left, and the deadline is normally midnight the following day. That gap between the event and the admin is where forgetting happens, which is why paying from the car park before you rejoin the motorway is the single most useful habit.
- Entering triggers the fee, with or without stopping
- Paying happens after you leave, not at the kerb
- Missing the deadline converts the fee into a penalty
Regional airports set their own rules
This comparison covers the six London airports. Regional airports run their own schemes, and the figures differ enough that a London rule of thumb does not carry over.
Birmingham Airport is the clearest example: its standard drop-off zone is still free for ten minutes, a short walk from the doors, with a paid premium set-down closer in for anyone who would rather pay than walk. That is the arrangement the London airports have moved away from.
For Manchester, Bristol and Leeds Bradford, each airport page sets out the current charge. The pattern is the same wherever you fly from: the nearer the kerb, the higher the fee and the shorter the clock.
How to decide before you set off
Deciding at the airport is how people end up paying twice. The choice is easier made at home, and it turns on three questions rather than the fee.
How much luggage is there, how much time is there, and is anyone in the party going to struggle with a shuttle bus? Cases and a tight schedule point at the forecourt. Hand luggage and an hour spare point at the free car park.
The third question decides more than people expect. A courtesy bus with a suitcase, a pushchair and a toddler is a different proposition from the same bus with a laptop bag, whatever the timetable says.
- Count the cases before choosing the kerb or the car park
- Allow 30 minutes for any free option, not 15
- Check the Blue Badge rule at that specific airport
- Pay from the car park before rejoining the motorway
What a pre-booked transfer changes
Booking a licensed airport transfer does not exempt the vehicle from any of this. The driver enters the same zone, the same camera reads the plate, and the same fee applies.
What it removes is the exposure. A fixed-fare operator prices the charge into the quote and settles it the same day as part of running a fleet, so no deadline reaches the passenger and no notice lands a fortnight later.
On arrivals the difference is larger still. Meet and greet uses the car park rather than the forecourt, so nobody is watching a clock while you queue at passport control. The fee stops being a decision you have to make at the kerb with a boot open.
Terminal drop-off charge questions
Terminal drop-off charge, answered
Direct answers to the questions people get caught out by.
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CONTACT USHeathrow and Luton, at £7, are the cheapest to enter. But cheapest changes with the length of stop: past 15 minutes Stansted charges a flat £28 while Luton is still metering at £17.
A fee for entering the kerbside zone outside a terminal building, charged per visit rather than per minute. Cameras read the plate on entry and payment is made online afterwards.
All six: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend. Fees run from £7 to £10, and the included time from 5 minutes to 15.
Yes, at every airport. The charge attaches when the camera reads your plate at the entrance. Turning around and leaving without stopping costs the same as a full drop-off.
Gatwick and Luton, at two hours in Long Stay. Stansted Mid Stay gives 60 minutes with a shuttle every 10 minutes, and Heathrow Long Stay gives 30 minutes.
Between £80 and £100, depending on the airport. Gatwick and Stansted issue £100, Luton £95, Heathrow £80. Each is reduced if paid within 14 days, to between £40 and £60.
No. Most airports give registered holders a full discount, but Stansted does not exempt Blue Badge holders, and London City requires registration before every visit rather than once.
London City and Southend. Neither has a free car park window. Both sit on a rail line instead, the DLR and c2c respectively, which is the zero-cost way in.
No. Payment opens only once the vehicle has left the zone, at every airport that uses cameras. The deadline is normally midnight the following day.
Gatwick, at £20. Its meter runs at a pound a minute to a £30 cap. Heathrow has no 20-minute price at all: its 10 minutes is a hard limit, and exceeding it means a penalty rather than a larger fee.
No, but it moves the problem. The vehicle still pays. A fixed-fare operator folds the fee into the quoted price and settles it the same day, so no deadline or notice reaches the passenger.
In short
Six London airports charge to enter the kerbside zone, from £7 at Heathrow and Luton to £10 at Gatwick and Stansted, and the fee alone tells you very little. What decides the cost is the minutes included and what follows them: a pound a minute at Gatwick, Luton and London City, a flat band at Stansted and Southend, and at Heathrow no meter at all.
Penalties run from £80 to £100 and are reduced if paid within 14 days, which makes forgetting to pay ten to fifteen times more expensive than the charge itself. Free alternatives exist at four of the six, led by two hours at Gatwick and Luton Long Stay and 60 minutes at Stansted Mid Stay, while London City and Southend offer a station instead of a car park. Exemptions are the least consistent part: Stansted does not recognise a Blue Badge, and London City wants registration before every visit.
Two rules hold everywhere. Entering triggers the fee whether or not you stop, and payment only opens once you have left. A pre-booked transfer does not dodge either, but a fixed fare absorbs the charge and the deadline so neither reaches you.
Charges, time limits, penalties and exemptions are set by each airport and change without notice, so confirm them on the airport's own website before you travel. Last checked 18 August 2026.
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Where to go next
London airport transfers
Fixed fares at all six London airports, charges already included.
Read moreGatwick drop-off charge
£10 for 10 minutes, metered to £30, and two terminals that charge separately.
Read moreStansted drop-off charge
Fifteen minutes included, then a flat £28. And no Blue Badge exemption.
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