£5 minimum fee to drop off passengers at Gatwick Airport

A new £5 minimum fee to drop passengers outside the North Terminal has been announced by Gatwick Airport. The new fee will be introduced from 8th March 2021 as the airport explores new ways to generate revenue to cushion the blow from the financially-crippling effects of the pandemic on global aviation.

The charges will be:

– £5 for 10 minutes
– £1 for each additional minute up to 20 minutes
– The maximum charge will be £25
– The maximum length of stay is 30 minutes

Passengers will be able to pay for the fees online. Disabled badge holders will not be subjected to the charge if they register their details in advance of arriving at the airport.

The new fee structure was first suggested in October 2020. The fees will initially only apply to passengers being dropped at the North Terminal although they will be extended to the South Terminal at a date which is yet to be confirmed. The South Terminal is not currently in operation.

There will be an alternative option for passengers that want to avoid paying the drop off charges. Gatwick’s long stay car park offers 2 hours of free parking and a free shuttle bus from the car park to the terminal.

Environmental campaigners have welcomed the move which they hope will force passengers to to consider more sustainable transport options.

Chief Commercial Officer Jonathan Pollard said: “It is no secret that the airport is going through the most difficult period in its history and we have little choice but to explore new revenue streams that will us help us recover from the Covid-19 crisis and continue as an important provider of economic prosperity and jobs across the region.”

“We plan to use this charge to build on these services by using a proportion of the revenue raised to support new sustainable transport initiatives, in addition to our ongoing project to build a new £150 million airport train station which is progressing well,” Mr Pollard said.

Gatwick aims to reduce the number of ‘kiss and fly’ journeys to the airport which accounted for around 15% in 2019.