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A red price reduction tag hanging from a barrier at an airport car park at dusk, showing a reduced price of £13.10 with original price £13.03, with parked cars and terminal building visible in the background.
Travel News · 7 min read · October 2026

While the price of everything else at the airport is going up, parking prices this half-term have actually fallen

While many household costs are still rising, airport parking is heading the other way. Across 23 UK airports, half-term parking booked with Holiday Extras averages slightly less than a year ago, and people who book early are paying less still. Here is where prices are down, where they are flat, and where they have gone up.

Short on time? Let us summarise this guide for you.

Analysis of Holiday Extras bookings across 23 UK airports shows airport parking this October half-term averaging £13.03 per night, against £13.10 last year, a fall of 0.5%. A week's parking averages £85.68, down from £86.67, and prices are down for stays of 3, 5, 7 and 8 nights. Comparing the same mix of products, stays and booking windows, prices are still fractionally lower. The picture varies by airport: 11 airports are cheaper than last year, 4 are within 1% of last year's prices and 8 are dearer. Aberdeen is down 22.3% a night, Birmingham 13.9%, Manchester 7.4% and Gatwick 5.2%, while Bristol, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Heathrow are up. Booking early also helped: for matching bookings, people who booked 60 days or more ahead paid 9.2% less per night than last-minute bookers, about £7.46 less per booking, although at Gatwick early bookers paid 3.8% more. At the same time, airport drop-off fees are rising and the Government has confirmed a review of them, which makes the cost of actually parking look better by comparison. These figures cover Holiday Extras bookings made up to 17 October for arrivals from 19 October to 1 November 2026, and are averages of what customers booked rather than live prices.

What you'll find in this guide:

A half-term getaway is rarely cheap, and it can feel as though every part of the trip costs more than it did a year ago. Parking is one of the few places where the numbers are going the right way. Our analysis of airport parking booked with Holiday Extras for the October half-term fortnight shows prices slightly lower overall than at the same point last year, and noticeably lower at several airports.

It is not a dramatic fall, and it is not true everywhere, so we have set out the full picture below, including the airports where prices have gone up.

Half-term parking prices at a glance

For arrivals from 19 October to 1 November 2026, the average price paid for airport parking across 23 UK airports was £13.03 per night, compared with £13.10 for the equivalent fortnight last year. That is a fall of 0.5%. The average parking booking costs £84.08, down from £85.13, and the average stay is 6.45 nights.

Average per night
£13.03
Down from £13.10 last year, a fall of 0.5%, across all stay lengths combined.
Average week's parking
£85.68
For exactly seven nights, down from £86.67 last year, a fall of 1.1%.
Early bookers
9.2% less
Paid per night than last-minute bookers for matching bookings, about £7.46 per booking.

These are the prices customers actually paid after discounts, with optional add-ons removed. We also checked a tighter comparison that holds the type of parking product, length of stay, booking route, arrival week and how far ahead the booking was made fixed. On that basis prices are still down, from £13.50 to £13.45 per night. That comparison covers around two thirds (65.4%) of current bookings, so we treat it as a sense-check rather than a full price index.

Prices by length of stay

Short stays often cost more per night than long ones, so the mix of trips can move an average on its own. To avoid that, here is the average total price for bookings of exactly the same length, this year against last.

Average total parking price by exact length of stay:
  • 3 nights: £64.80, down from £66.08 (down 1.9%)
  • 5 nights: £75.95, down from £77.23 (down 1.7%)
  • 7 nights: £85.68, down from £86.67 (down 1.1%)
  • 8 nights: £92.09, down from £92.91 (down 0.9%)

Two week stays are the exception. A 14 night booking averages £126.33, which is 4.4% more than last year's £120.98. Fortnight bookings are a smaller part of the half-term mix, so we would not read too much into that one figure, but it is worth knowing if you are planning a longer trip.

Where parking is cheaper, flat or dearer

Of the 23 airports in our analysis, 11 are cheaper than last year, 4 are within 1% of last year's prices and 8 are dearer. Here is how it breaks down. Figures are the average price per calendar night, with the change on last year, and the average price of a week where we have enough bookings to show one.

Cheaper than last year

  • Aberdeen: £7.43 a night, down 22.3%. A week averages £43.12, the lowest of any airport
  • Birmingham: £13.99 a night, down 13.9%. A week averages £89.03, which is £16.94 less than last year
  • Manchester: £11.61 a night, down 7.4%. A week averages £77.98
  • Cardiff: £13.62 a night, down 6.6%. A week averages £92.93
  • Southend: £9.56 a night, down 5.8%. A week averages £63.27
  • Gatwick: £11.12 a night, down 5.2%. A week averages £81.27
  • London City: £30.61 a night, down 5.1%. Stays here are short, so the nightly figure looks high, and a week averages £132.44 (limited bookings)
  • Glasgow: £7.26 a night, down 4.7%. A week averages £52.15
  • Humberside: £12.79 a night, down 3.5%
  • Exeter: £14.46 a night, down 2.6%. A week averages £105.65
  • Southampton: £19.21 a night, down 1.8%

Some of these falls reflect what customers chose to book as well as what airports charged. At Birmingham, for example, the fall is 13.9% overall but 5.7% when we compare the same products, so part of the drop comes from customers choosing cheaper options. Manchester's fall holds up well when like is compared with like (down 7.0%), and the airport has new budget options this half-term, including Maple Park and Ride, where a week averages £49.17.

Within 1% of last year

  • Bournemouth: £15.95 a night, up 0.3%
  • Newcastle: £13.13 a night, up 0.4%
  • Leeds Bradford: £12.19 a night, up 0.7%
  • East Midlands: £10.36 a night, up 0.8%

Dearer than last year

  • Bristol: £17.79 a night, up 20.7%. Comparing like for like it is up 15.8%, and a week averages £110.34
  • Edinburgh: £10.40 a night, up 16.1%. Like for like it is up 10.0%, and a week averages £71.80
  • Liverpool: £14.02 a night, up 11.4%. A week averages £95.18
  • Heathrow: £17.65 a night, up 4.8%. A week averages £132.91
  • Luton: £12.30 a night, up 3.8%. A week averages £81.25
  • Stansted: £14.18 a night, up 3.6%. A week averages £80.91
  • Norwich: £13.81 a night, up 3.0%. A week averages £94.14
  • Teesside: £9.65 a night, up 58.3%, but from a very low £6.09 last year, so it is still cheaper than many airports

If your airport is in this last group, there is still room to save. Prices vary a lot between car parks at the same airport. Looking at seven night bookings, the lowest average product prices this half-term included £43.12 at Aberdeen, £49.17 at Manchester, £49.88 at East Midlands and £62.51 at Gatwick. Those are averages of what customers booked rather than live prices, and they do not compare walking distance, transfer time or flexibility, so check the details of any car park before you book.

Why booking early can help

The price you pay also depends on when you book. We compared people who booked 60 days or more before they travelled with people who booked in the final week, matching them on airport, car park, booking route, arrival date and length of stay so we were comparing like with like.

On that basis, early bookers paid £12.64 per night against £13.92 for last-minute bookers. That is 9.2% less, or about £7.46 less on an average parking booking.

Early bookers paid less per night at:
  • Bristol: 25.7% less (£15.67 against £21.09)
  • Stansted: 23.3% less (£11.22 against £14.63)
  • Manchester: 19.0% less (£12.23 against £15.10)
  • Birmingham: 14.7% less (£14.54 against £17.05)
  • Heathrow: 11.4% less (£18.96 against £21.39)
  • Newcastle: 8.1% less (£12.05 against £13.11)
  • Luton: 5.8% less (£11.21 against £11.89)
It doesn't work infalliably - occasionally the price of parking goes down at the last moment. But the rule is generally very persistent, and it's almost always cheaper to book in advance than pay on the day.

Because last-minute bookings for the second week of half-term had not yet been made when we took our figures, this year's early booking comparison covers arrivals from 19 to 24 October only. For context, across last year's completed half-term fortnight, early bookers paid 13.2% less per night (£13.67 against £15.75). That is a look back rather than a prediction for this year, but it points the same way.

Meanwhile, at the drop-off barrier

Parking is not the only airport cost in the news. Airport drop-off charges have been rising, and on 14 October the Department for Transport confirmed it will review them.

What we know so far:
  • The Department for Transport has committed to a review of airport drop-off charges. The scope and timetable have not been published yet
  • RAC analysis from July found that 16 of the top 20 UK airports raised their drop-off fees between summer 2025 and summer 2026, with average prices up by around a third
  • Gatwick and Stansted have gone from £7 to £10, Edinburgh from £6 to £8.50 and Bournemouth from £5 to £8. London City, which only introduced a charge this year, now asks £8 for five minutes
  • Airports say the charges help manage congestion and air pollution around terminals

Sources: BBC News and RAC, 14 October 2026.

It puts parking prices in a different light. At around £7 each way, a drop-off and a pick-up come to roughly £14 for a few minutes at the kerb, which is about what a whole night's parking averages this half-term (£13.03). Fees and time limits differ from airport to airport, and going over a limit can trigger a penalty notice, so it is worth checking the rules for your own airport before you set off.

About these figures

Everything above comes from Holiday Extras research into half-term bookings across 23 UK airports. A few things are worth knowing when you read it:

  • The 2026 figures cover bookings made up to 17 October for arrivals from 19 October to 1 November 2026. They are compared with the same point last year, for arrivals from 20 October to 2 November 2025, so we are comparing an equally advanced booking position rather than a part-sold fortnight against a fully sold one
  • These are averages of completed bookings, not live quotes or advertised "from" prices. The price you see will depend on your dates, the car park and when you book
  • Airports marked as limited evidence have too few bookings of a given length to rank with confidence. London City's seven night figure is one of these
  • Hotels, bundled hotel and parking packages, ports and Dublin are not included

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