London Gatwick has opened bookings for a robotic parking service that will begin handling its first customer journeys in August. The installation, developed with Stanley Robotics, is the first use of robotic parking at a UK airport, according to Aerospace Global News.
Passengers using the service drive into a private enclosed cabin close to Gatwick’s South Terminal and scan their reservation. After they leave the cabin with their keys, an autonomous robot moves beneath the vehicle, raises it by the tyres and carries it into a secure storage zone. Customers do not drive through the main parking area or hand their keys to a valet.
Return-flight information supplied during booking allows the system to monitor when a passenger is due back. It can then retrieve the car and place it in a collection cabin for pickup. The facility is within walking distance of the terminal, and a free shuttle bus is also available. Staff can recover an essential item if a traveller realizes after drop-off that it was left in the vehicle.
The service must be reserved in advance; customers cannot arrive and purchase it on the same day. It is designed for most standard passenger cars, subject to vehicle limits set for the facility. The supplied account did not detail pricing or the precise capacity of the site.
Robotic storage changes how space is used because parked cars do not need room for occupants to open doors or walk between vehicles. The system can therefore place them closer together than drivers could in a conventional car park. Gatwick and Stanley Robotics present that density as a way to serve more vehicles within an existing footprint rather than immediately constructing additional parking infrastructure.
Oli Bedford, Gatwick’s head of airport access, marketing and commercial products, described the service as quick and straightforward, emphasizing that passengers retain their keys. Stanley Robotics chief executive Clément Boussard said the project was intended to help the airport manage parking demand as it grows.
Stanley Robotics has installed comparable systems in other countries, but Gatwick marks its first airport deployment in the United Kingdom. The arrangement also gives the airport an operational test of automated vehicle handling in a travel setting, where retrieval depends on flight schedules and customers need predictable access after landing.
For passengers, the main difference is at the handoff: they park only inside a cabin, confirm the booking and walk away. The robot performs the space-finding, storage and return movements out of public view. The August launch will move the system from advance reservations to live customer journeys and show how the automated workflow performs alongside Gatwick’s existing South Terminal access options.
