Airport parking savings: Which airport has the priciest parking spaces?

The last thing anyone wants when heading on holiday is a steep parking charge on top of paying for their getaway. So, to help you out, we’ve looked into the many ways you can get a better price on your airport parking. We’ve even picked out which of the UK’s biggest airports offer the cheapest and most expensive spaces, helping you decide whether it’s worth making the trip to an airport with lower parking prices!

Which airport has the most expensive parking spaces?

Based on our number-crunching, London City Airport is home to the UK's most expensive airport parking spaces. Out of the country’s top 19 busiest airports, London City Airport had the highest average price for parking your car over two weeks. London’s most central airport might boast an ideal location, but it’s a luxury that comes with a hefty cost.[1]

Our full list of the 10 most expensive airports for car parking in the UK can be found below: 

Maybe unsurprisingly, leaving your car at the capital’s other main airports will also set you back a pretty penny. All five of London’s major airports ranked in our top 10 most expensive for parking.

In fact, airport parking in London is noticeably more expensive than the rest of the country. The average cost of an airport parking spot in London is £166.44 for two weeks, whereas the average for everywhere else in the UK is only £123.52 - a difference of £42! Flying from the capital clearly brings sky-high prices when arriving by car, which means it might be best to look for train or bus connections!

Outside of London, Birmingham is where you’ll be hit with the priciest parking places of the UK’s biggest airports. Bagging a spot for a fortnight here will set you back by £176.14 on average, around £41 more than the UK average - ouch! The other places outside of London ranking in the top 10 include Bournemouth (£171.45), Bristol (£153.33) and Cardiff (£135.38).

Based on this, there’s clearly a big north-south divide when it comes to airport parking fees. Only one northern airport ranked among the 10 most expensive, that being Manchester Airport at an average of £125.44, making it the tenth most expensive.

This divide can be seen on a national front, too, as it looks like airport parking in Scotland is much cheaper than in England. The average cost for a parking space north of the border is £101.15, while the price in England is £144.95 - a whole £43.80 more.

Overall though, Liverpool took the prideful crown as the cheapest place for airport parking out of the UK’s biggest airports. Parking at Liverpool John Lennon Airport for two weeks costs an average of just £80.46. That’s over £130 less than the average at London City Airport - enough to buy you another fortnight’s parking at Heathrow!  

Answering the big questions about airport parking prices

We know that forking out extra money for the sake of parking your car at the airport is a real pain. So, to help you get the best deal, we’ve revisited our numbers to pick out the key trends and find out where the real savings can be made!  

When is best to book airport parking?

Based on our research, getting the best price is less about when you book and more about when you’ll be flying. According to our figures, December was the cheapest month for airport parking, with the average price across the country being £118.52 for December 2024. As you might have guessed, prices tend to spike over the summer months, with the peak coming at £152.77 in September.

We did notice a few price fluctuations at some car parks based on how far in advance the booking was made. For some, the prices would get cheaper if booking further in advance, while a select few offered their cheapest prices when booking at the last minute. We wouldn’t recommend leaving it late to get booked up though, as some car parks were already full for the nearest months, meaning you’d be running the risk of being left without a space.

On the other hand, prices seemed to fluctuate at random at some car parks, and others simply operated a flat fee, meaning you’ll pay the same price no matter when you book. Overall, though, the time of year you travel is the main factor. 

Is on-airport or off-airport parking cheaper?

Our figures suggest that off-airport parking is marginally cheaper (as you’d probably expect), although not by much. The average price for on-airport parking was £135.65, whereas the average for off-airport parking was £132.39 - only £3 difference. So, in this case, it may be worth paying that little bit more for the added convenience. 

Is meet & greet or park & ride cheaper?

We found that park & ride services tend to be cheaper than meet & greet. The average cost for a meet & greet space was £145.87, whereas the average for park & ride was just £105.28 - £40 less! 

Can you get voucher codes for airport parking?

Yes, you can! It’s not the category most associated with vouchers, but you can find discount codes to help you save on airport parking. Check out the parking section of our site before booking to make sure you aren’t missing out on any bargains! 

Can you save money by travelling to a different airport?

Since there’s such a wild difference in parking prices between airports, you might be wondering if it’s worth travelling a bit further for a cheaper space. In some cases, this might actually save you some cash!

In fact, Londoners would be better off driving all the way up to Liverpool than paying for the prices at London City Airport (in theory)! The return trip to Liverpool would cost around £57 in fuel but as Liverpool's car parks are an average of £132 cheaper, travellers’ wallets would still be £75 to the good.

If you live in the capital and like to steer clear of long drives, you can still make a saving by travelling the short distance to Heathrow. The average cost for parking at Heathrow is £85.41 cheaper than London City Airport, and as the drive will only cost you £15.48 in fuel, going the extra distance will save you just under £70 - enough to get you a few extra drinks when you get to the hotel![2]

Flyers in the midlands can also spend less using this tactic: the short journey to East Midlands Airport from Birmingham will give you a saving of £64. Plus, there’s a saving to be made by travelling from Manchester Airport to Liverpool. This short trip will leave you £37 better off, even after paying for the fuel!

Scottish flyers can make a little saving by doing this, too. Parking at Glasgow is an average of £17 cheaper than in Edinburgh. As the cost of driving to Glasgow will be around £7 each way, you’ll be left with a modest £4 saving.

If you do consider flying further afield from your usual airport, make sure to use a free fuel cost calculator online to work out how much the extra journey will cost you. Then, simply look at whether it’s more or less than the price of parking at the airport to see if you’ll be making a saving. 

About the data

[1]  To work out the UK’s most expensive airports for car parking, we compiled average parking price data for the UK’s 19 busiest airports using data from Compare the Airport Parking and Skypark. For each car park available at each airport, we reviewed the price for two weeks of parking in each month of the year, starting from the first Monday of each month. This allowed us to see the most expensive months to park at each airport.

We then calculated the average cost for each car park over a year, and then the overall average for the car parks at each airport. Finally, we split this data by meet & greet/park & ride, as well as on/off-airport to find which parking types were most expensive.

Parking prices for Belfast City, Belfast International and Bournemouth were taken directly from the airports’ websites.

[2] To discover the potential savings of travelling to a further airport for cheaper parking, we first looked at the difference in parking prices between a selection of airports in the country. We then used Go.Compare’s fuel cost calculator to work out the additional fuel costs of driving further to another airport, then subtracted this from the difference in average car park prices.