
The cost of dropping off a family member or friend at London Gatwick, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Bristol has shot up by £1.
This means drivers waving goodbye to loved ones at London Gatwick and Bristol will pay a hefty £6 for a 10-minute stop, while in Edinburgh, it’s £5 for the same deal, RAC revealed.
Elsewhere, Birmingham airport has gone up to £5 for 15 minutes and in Glasgow, Leeds Bradford and Aberdeen, prices have crept up by 50p. It means it’ll now cost you £5.50 for a 15-minute farewell in Glasgow, £6.50 for a 10-minute slot in Leeds Bradford and £5.50 to say goodbye within 15 minutes in Aberdeen.
However, those costs are still less than the priciest airport in the UK for drop-offs. That ‘honour’ is saved for London Stansted, which charges £7 for up to 15-minute stays, with Leeds Bradford just behind with £6.50 for 10 minutes.
Both of those locations were part of the nine airports among the 20 most frequented that froze their prices since last summer.

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Meanwhile, London City, Cardiff and Inverness have free parking spots to drop off your family or friends before their trip.
The charges for drivers are unavoidable for many, as over a third (37%) of RAC’s 1,700 respondents believe there is no public transport alternative to driving and a similar number (34%) think public transport is too unreliable.
‘Depressing but unsurprising’
RAC senior policy officer, Rod Dennis, described the fees as “depressing, if perhaps unsurprising given what’s happened in the past”.
Dennis said: “Increased charges at airports that have relatively poor public transport access – for instance, no direct rail or tram link – also seems pretty unreasonable.
“Some airports say the reason they charge for drop-offs at all is to discourage people from driving in the first place, but if the alternatives are non-existent, expensive or unreliable then what choice do people really have?
“Our research also clearly shows that a major reason for driving and dropping off is the practical challenges of travelling with heavy and bulky luggage, especially if you have elderly or very young people in tow.
“If the only public transport to get to an airport is, for example, a pretty impractical double-decker bus, it’s no wonder people turn to the car.”
Dennis also urged passengers and drivers to keep their goodbyes at the airport “extremely short” if they want to avoid racking up lofty charges.
He added: “Those visiting London Heathrow or Gatwick should also be aware that it’s now not possible to pay the drop-off charge in-person at either airport. Instead, they need to pay online using the official airport website or by phone – an unfortunate extra piece of admin drivers could surely do without.
“It’s also worth remembering that many airports offer free or cheaper short-term parking further away from the terminal. This might be significantly less convenient, but it does save money.”
Last year, a separate study by Which? revealed travellers could pay over 300% more for their parking if they booked the spot on the day of travelling.