Having recently revealed its plans to level up its passenger capacity and its flight route offering, the UK’s fourth busiest airport has now decided to elevate something else, too. As of today (March 19), drivers dropping passengers off at London Stansted Airport will have to pay a fair bit more than before.
Stansted Airport’s drop-off fee increase comes after a string of UK aviation hubs have done the same thing, following in the footsteps of the likes of Gatwick, Bristol, and London City airports.
The new Stansted Airport drop-off fee
The drop-off fee at Stanstead airport will now be £10 for up to 15 minutes (up from £7) and a whopping £28 for anything between 15 and 30 minutes (having increased from £25). This price hike means that Stansted is the second airport in the UK to charge a minimum drop-off fee in the double digits. Stansted joins Gatwick Airport as the most expensive airport in terms of drop-off costs.
This fee increase comes in a bid to encourage passengers to travel to the airport on public transport. The (technically not in) London aviation hub surpassed 30 million annual passengers for the very first time last year. Stansted says that almost 50% of them already get to and from the terminal on trains, coaches, and buses – but they’re hoping for that number to rise even further.
Passengers who want to save their pennies and are happy to be dropped off and picked up slightly further afield can use the airport’s mid-stay car park. A free 7-minute shuttle bus operates from there to the terminal, and customers can park in the mid-stay car park for up to an hour for free.
