Drivers warned of the most expensive UK airports for parking with huge costs

31/03/2024

Britons who park their car at airports are being warned of the increased prices as more drivers face parking cost hikes when going on holiday.

Airports across the UK experienced 23.4 million people flying abroad between April and June 2023, a 14 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

As more people get ready to travel over Easter and in the summer, motorists who park at airports should know how much they’re paying while abroad.

Three London airports were flagged as being the most expensive for drivers to park for seven days. London City Airport costs £164.34 for a one-week stay while London Heathrow Airport charges £123.40 and drivers have to fork out £106 at London Gatwick.

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New data has found which airports charge the most for parking

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Sam Sheehan, motoring editor at cinch, said: “You’ve got everything sorted, but figuring out where to park your used BMW may be causing you some concern.

“You don’t want to come back from holiday with a large parking ticket, so knowing how much you’ll pay is important to minimise post-holiday blues on your return.

“To find the cheapest place for you to park, we looked at the charge for a 7-day parking stay across the 20 largest airports in the UK.

“If you’re planning to fly abroad, you may have to pay for parking while away. The cheapest airport for parking is Edinburgh Airport, with the most expensive being over 300 miles away at London City Airport.”

Birmingham International Airport was priced at £99.99 for one week’s parking with the same for Bristol Airport.

In Scotland, Edinburgh Airport came out as the cheapest place to park across the UK, charging drivers £39.99 for a seven-day stay. This was followed by Cardiff International Airport charging £50.99 and costs of £57.99 at Aberdeen Dyce Airport.

The parking warning comes as new research found motorists around the UK were hit with more than 35,000 parking tickets a day by private companies between April and December last year, this included airports.

Each ticket can cost up to £100 for parking fines with the private companies raking in thousands for infringements.

Analysis of Government data by the RAC Foundation found that 9.7 million tickets were issued to drivers by private parking companies in Britain between April and December last year.

A different Freedom of Information request detailed how the DVLA earned around £13.2million from private parking requests in 2020. This increased by 81 per cent to £23.9million in 2021 and £30.18million in 2022.

This totalled 5.2 million requests in 2020, 9.5 million in 2021 and 12 million in 2022 – around 33,000 a day.

If drivers were fined £100 every time a private parking warden sent off a request to the DVLA, and drivers didn’t appeal, they would have spent £520million in 2020/21 on parking fines and more than £1billion in 2022/23.

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