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Airport parking isn’t cheap. Get it wrong, and you could find yourself paying over three times more than the owner of the car parked next to you.

What is airport parking?

UK airports cater for more than 220 million passengers each year. Many of these travellers aim to leave their cars at a convenient location close to the terminal. Typically, this involves using one of the following facilities:

• On-site parking. These car parks are found within the airport perimeter, meaning they’re about as close to the departure and arrival halls as possible. For this reason, they tend to be pricier than the alternatives.

• Off-site parking is frequently cheaper than on-site parking because you don’t park on the doorstep. Off-site parking may involve leaving your vehicle in a multi-storey car park, garage or gated lot away from the airport and then taking a shuttle to the terminal. Users can save around £50 a week using these park-and-ride operations.

• Meet and greet. You drop your car off at the terminal. A valet parks your car at a secure location and meets you at the terminal when you return. This option is usually more expensive than off-site parking.

How to cut the cost of airport parking

Parking at the airport may be one of the last things you do before flying off into the sun, but that’s no reason to leave it late to sort out. Here are some ways to cut the cost of airport parking:

Pick the right car park

You have a few options here, so take care to pick the one that best suits your needs and budget:

Short-stay

These are designed for airport drop-offs and collections. They’re usually a short walk from the terminal and relatively cheap if you use them as intended. For example, at the time of writing, it costs £6 for a 30-minute stay at Gatwick, £10 for up to an hour and £27.50 for up to five hours. 

If you stay put for longer, you’ll invariably be better off at a long-stay car park because the costs soon start to rack up in a short-stay car park – a 6 to 12-hour stay at Gatwick will cost you £50 or £60 for 12 to 24 hours, and £60 a day thereafter. 

Many airports also offer premium short-stay car parks, which cost more for the convenience of being very close to the terminal. Make sure you don’t accidentally park at one of these.

Mid-stay

Most airports operate a mid-stay car park, which, as the name suggests, sits between short- and long-stay car parks. These locations are designed for trips of around a week in duration, but you shouldn’t automatically select this option. Eight days at Stansted Airport’s mid-stay car park in early October would cost £82, £20 more than in the long-stay car park.

Long-stay

These are designed for travellers who need to leave their cars somewhere secure for a longer period. Using Gatwick as an example, a day ticket costs £38, with each subsequent day costing £32.  

Book in advance 

Pre-booking a parking space is a great way to save money. For example, turning up at Gatwick’s North Terminal short-stay car park without pre-booking could cost up to £420 for a week. Pre-book and you could pay less than £115. 

Use drop-off and pick-up zones…

If you’re dropping off or picking up at the airport, you might be able to avoid using car parks altogether. Most airports have dedicated zones for this purpose. Some have no cost for a short stay while passengers get in or out, but others charge a small fee. 

… or use a long-stay car park

If there is a charge, it’s worth checking what you might pay at a long-term car park for a brief stop. For example, it costs £6 to use a drop-off and pick-up point at Gatwick, but you can park at the long-stay car park for up to two hours for nothing. 

Try parking brokers

Shopping around for deals makes sense, so it should come as no surprise that there are companies that will compare airport parking options and costs. Here are a few sites worth looking at the next time you plan to go abroad:

Use discount vouchers

Voucher and discount codes don’t just apply to clothes, theatre tickets and BBQs – you can also use them to snag airport parking deals. Here are a few sites to check out before you hit the book button:

• Vouchercodes.co.uk

• Purpleparking.com

• Vouchercloud.com

• Groupon.co.uk

What are the alternatives to airport parking?

Public transport

While less convenient and reliable, travelling by train is often cheaper than driving to and parking at an airport, especially if you buy advance tickets. These tickets offer notable savings, and you can buy them up to 12 weeks before you fly.

You could also catch a bus, tram or coach to the airport. Most airports have numerous routes linking them to the nearest large towns and cities. You could even park somewhere safe close to the airport and catch a bus, train or taxi to your destination. 

Beware of parking on roads, as your car might attract unwanted attention if it’s there for a long spell. A better bet might be to buy a car park ticket that covers you for a week or two. 

Taxis

Don’t write off the benefits of getting a taxi, especially if your flight is in the middle of the night when most public transport isn’t available. If the alternative is staying at a hotel near the airport, this could prove cheaper. For example, it costs around £30 to get a cab from Edinburgh city centre to the airport. A one-night stay at the closest Premier Inn would cost at least three times as much – and you’d still need a ride to the airport.

Hotel and car park deals

If you have a long way to travel to the airport, a hotel and car park package could be just the ticket. You arrive the day before you fly, spend the night and catch a shuttle bus to the terminal, returning by the same method. Meanwhile, your car remains in the hotel car park.  

Costs vary – a week's package in early July at a hotel close to Manchester Airport could cost less than £140. At Gatwick, you could pay from around £160.

Private parking 

Lots of enterprising people who live relatively close to major airports let out their driveways or garages to holidaymakers for the duration of their trip. They advertise their parking spaces via apps, such as JustPark and YourParkingSpace, which work in a similar way to Airbnb apps. 

You specify an airport, and they show all the parking locations within a few miles. You book your slot and a taxi to the airport then turn up at the allotted time. 

A week’s parking in July, on a driveway just over a mile from Heathrow, could cost less than £40, plus your taxi fare.