Airports have become considerably less relaxed about where cars stop than they were a decade ago. Forecourts are controlled, waiting is discouraged, and the place a driver could once pull in for two minutes is now enforced by cameras. That is the backdrop to this question, and it is why the answer is a confident yes with a boundary attached rather than an unqualified one.
The good news is that within those rules there is usually more choice than passengers realise, and the differences matter: a bay in a short-stay car park is a very different experience from a busy set-down lane, particularly with children or a lot of luggage. This page explains the options, who decides them, and how to lock yours in before you fly.
The choices usually available
Most UK terminals offer some version of the same set of options, though the names and the geography differ enormously between them. The one that suits you depends less on the airport and more on what you are carrying, who is with you and how well you know the building. Below are the arrangements we are most often asked to set up.
Say which you would prefer when you book and it is written into the arrangement. If you are not sure, describe the arrival instead — how many of you, how many bags, whether anybody struggles with distance — and we will suggest the point that makes the most sense for that terminal. Unfamiliar airports are where the recommendation is worth most, and a request made then is far easier to honour than one made on the day.
- Meeting inside the arrivals hall, with a name board or without one
- A bay in the short-stay car park, walked to with your bags
- A designated pick-up or set-down area outside the terminal
- A quieter door or level, where the terminal has more than one exit
- A hotel or car park on the airport perimeter, away from the crowds
- A private terminal, where you are arriving or departing through one
What the airport decides, not us
Every airport sets its own rules about which vehicles may enter which areas, how long they may stop, and where waiting is permitted at all. Those rules change, they differ between terminals in the same airport, and they are enforced. A chauffeur who ignores them is asked to move on within a minute or two, which helps nobody standing on the kerb with a suitcase.
So there are requests we will decline, and it is better to hear that in advance. A car cannot wait indefinitely on a set-down lane. It cannot collect from a departures forecourt because that is quieter. And nothing happens on the far side of security: meeting you means meeting you in the public arrivals hall after you have cleared the border, with a hand for the luggage from there.
Pinning it down before you fly
A pickup point described vaguely is a pickup point you will argue about while tired. Get it written down: the terminal, the level, the car park or zone letter, and what happens if you come out somewhere unexpected. That last part matters more than it sounds, because several large terminals have more than one exit from customs and the wrong one puts a considerable walk between you.
Departures are worth the same attention in reverse. Tell us which terminal and which airline, since the drop-off point for one carrier can be a long walk from another in the same building. And if a return flight is part of the same booking, confirm both ends at the outset rather than assuming the outbound arrangement mirrors the inbound one, because at most airports it does not.
