Taxi airport drop-off fees

With close to 480,000 flights, servicing around 80 million passengers heading in and out of Heathrow – the UK’s flagship airport – in 2018, airport drop-off and pick-ups should be a booming trade for any taxi driver.

However, with airport drop-off zone fees sky-high, and rising, it’s easy to see why taxi airport runs may not produce the kind of profit margins that regular journeys do.

From data collected and published by the Civil Aviation Authority, the RAC has discovered that taxi drivers in the UK could be paying up to a staggering £25 for just 30 minutes spent in a drop-off or pick-up zone. That’s almost a pound per minute.

Research from Cardiff Airport suggests that the average drop-off time for a taxi at the airport is 7 minutes. As such we’ve pieced together the tables below to show the most expensive 15 airports for drop-offs of up to 10 and 30 minutes.

Data from Civil Aviation Authority

With fees for dropping-off and picking-up your passengers from the airport at such a high, taxi drivers are having to seek alternatives in order to maximise their profits from airport runs.

So, what can you actually do to avoid paying over the odds for your trips to the airport?

Being efficient with your time and collecting just a few additional details from your passengers – particularly where the taxi is pre-booked as is the case for many airport journeys - can help a great deal.

Knowing which flight and which terminal your passengers are flying from or into can help you to ensure you are not parked up for more time than necessary while working out whether your passenger is being dropped off in the right place.

This also allows you to check for delays on inbound flights helping you to avoid leaving your taxi in a drop-off zone while waiting for your passenger to arrive.

In addition, most airports offer waived drop-off fees for the disabled, so if your passengers hold a blue badge, it’s worth finding out to help you save on fees when dropping them off.

Finding alternatives to drop-off and pick-up zones can be another great way to duck hefty stopping fees.

This however, may result in a poorer experience for your customer.

The high fees are usually for drop-off zones right outside the airport terminals. Where your passenger has plenty of time and is physically able, you may weigh up the other options available to you.

Short stay car parks are on the whole cheaper to use than the drop-off and pick-up zones and most airports will also have a free dropping zone.

The drawback to these alternatives is that your passenger will be faced with a lengthy walk or the prospect of taking a shuttle bus to the terminal which could prove detrimental to your reputation.

All in all, little can be done to maintain a door-to-door service while also paying as little in drop-off fees as possible.

Nevertheless, having a slick, well-drilled airport routine and taking a little extra time to find out the specificities of your passenger’s journey can help taxi drivers keep costs low while keeping customers happy.