Parking at Heathrow

Dropping someone off at Heathrow

Dropping off at the terminal costs £7 per entry.

The same price applies at every terminal.

The maximum stay is ten minutes, in force since 1 January 2026, and the £7 is charged on each entry — a second entry the same day is charged again. The same price applies at Terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5, and taxis and private-hire vehicles pay it as well. There are no barriers; the charge is incurred on entering the zone and must be paid online or by phone by midnight the following day. Pick-ups and waiting are not permitted, and vehicles left unattended may be towed or removed by the police. The charge applies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Exemptions apply automatically to Heathrow permitted operational vehicles, emergency service vehicles and military vehicles; a 100 per cent discount applies automatically to roadside recovery vehicles, two-wheeled motorbikes, buses and coaches, and Heathrow Valet Parking customers. There are no exemptions or discounts for electric vehicles.

Free alternative: The Park & Ride car parks are free for the first 29 minutes, with a free shuttle to the terminal doors every 15 minutes between 04:00 and 23:30. Do not pre-book for a drop-off — take a ticket at the gate and pay at an on-foot machine on the way out if you stay longer than 29 minutes.

The airport's own drop-off page →

Picking someone up

There is no pick-up allowance to state: Heathrow does not permit pick-ups or waiting in the drop-off areas at all. Meeting an arriving passenger means using a car park and paying its tariff, not the £7 drop-off charge.

Car parks at Heathrow

What catches people out at Heathrow

• Every entry is a new £7 — The charge is per entry, not per visit. Heathrow states it plainly: enter a drop-off area a second time and you pay again, and every time after that. Circling back because a bag was left in the boot costs another £7, and the ten-minute maximum starts over rather than continuing. source
• The free car park is 29 minutes, not 30 — Heathrow's Park & Ride page says «up to 30-minutes is free» in one sentence and «the first 29-minutes of any drive-up parking session is free» in another — and its own tariff table settles it: 0–29 minutes free, 30 minutes to 1 hour 59 minutes £9.40. Read the looser sentence, stay exactly thirty minutes, and the visit costs £9.40. source
• No pick-ups, at any price — The £7 does not buy you the right to wait. Pick-ups and waiting are not permitted in the terminal drop-off areas at all, and vehicles left unattended may be towed or removed by the police. Meeting an arriving passenger means a car park and its own tariff — the drop-off charge is not an option you can pay your way into. source
• £80 for forgetting, and the clock is short — There is no barrier to stop you leaving unpaid. Payment is due by midnight the day after your visit; miss it and the charge is £80, reduced to £40 if paid within 14 days, with 28 days to pay in full. One forgotten £7 becomes £40 at best. source
• The Blue Badge discount has to exist before you arrive — Blue Badge holders get a 100 per cent discount, but only through a Blue Badge Account that must be set up in advance: registration plus one upload of the badge, approval taking up to five days, and the account expires if unused for twelve months. It covers whichever vehicle drops you off, including a taxi — but turning up on the day without an approved account means paying, and Heathrow says it will issue a notice if you neither use the discount nor pay. UK and EEA badges only. source

If you get a ticket at Heathrow

Heathrow is private land. A notice issued here is a parking charge notice — a claim under the contract you accept by parking, not a fine issued by a council. Nobody at the airport has the power to fine you.

Because this is not a council notice, an appeal does not go to London Tribunals, which hears council penalty charge notices in London.

Enforcement is carried out by APCOA Parking (UK) Limited on behalf of Heathrow Airport Limited.

The operator is a member of the British Parking Association (BPA), so an appeal it rejects goes to POPLA, Parking on Private Land Appeals. You do not choose which body hears it — the trade association decides that.

How a private parking charge works, and when the keeper can be pursued →

Appealing a private parking charge, step by step →

A notice here is £80, reduced to £40 within 14 days, with 28 days to pay in full. Challenge APCOA first; only its rejection opens the appeal to POPLA, because APCOA is a member of the British Parking Association's Approved Operator Scheme. Neither Heathrow's page nor its terms name an appeals service — that link is APCOA's own membership.

Nearby

• Parking in London council tickets, not private charges
• Birmingham Airport
• Bristol Airport
• East Midlands Airport
• Gatwick
• Liverpool John Lennon Airport
• London City Airport