London City Airport Drop-Off Charge Set to Hit Drivers and Taxis

London City Airport has finally joined the long list of UK airports charging drivers just to drop someone off. From 6 January, anyone arriving by car faces an £8 fee for up to five minutes on the forecourt. Five minutes. That’s it. Stay longer and the price creeps up by £1 per minute, capped at ten. A tight window. Miss it, and it adds up fast.

The airport says it’s about nudging people towards public transport, pointing out that most passengers already arrive by train or DLR. London City Airport stated:

“This move is part of our commitment to encourage more travel to and from the airport via public and sustainable transport modes, of which two-thirds of our passengers already use.”

It sounds neat enough. In reality, it’s messier. Early alarms. Late landings. Bags that don’t travel light. For plenty of passengers, taxis and private cars aren’t a choice, they’re the only option. For them, this is just another quiet cost slipping into the journey.

Licensed taxis get a temporary pass, which helps. For now. Transport for London is consulting on whether the fee should be built into taxi meters, as it already is elsewhere. If that happens, passengers may not notice at first. Just a slightly higher fare. Then the penny drops.

Timing matters too. Rail services still feel shaky, strikes come and go, and more people quietly switch to cars just to avoid the hassle. London City continues to lean heavily on the Docklands Light Railway, while the Elizabeth line runs nearby but never quite close enough to count. For a lot of travellers, there isn’t really a choice here. No proper alternative. Just the same trip, only more expensive.

Some locals have already clocked the workarounds. Rob Burgess, founder of Head for Points, stated:

“The snag for local residents is that this is a very easy fee to avoid.”

Nearby streets. A pedestrian tunnel. Quick hops out of the car. Fine if you’re travelling light. Less so with kids, cases, or mobility issues.

London City isn’t alone here. Gatwick’s charge jumps to £10 the same day. Heathrow quietly raised its fee to £7 at the start of the year. What used to feel exceptional is now standard.

For travellers, the takeaway’s simple. Check the rules before you head out. Ask your taxi driver how airport charges get handled. Leave a bit more time than usual. These fees seem small, tiny even. But stacked together, they quietly push up the real cost of getting to the airport.