Airports are expensive places, for food, parking and everything else. But some British fliers are complaining that parking now can cost more than the flight!
At London City Airport, for instance, it costs £298.90 for a week of parking, but £289 for a round-trip flight to Abu Dhabi. And that’s only an example. A survey by Spacehopper, an online find-a-space site, found that most UK airports charge more for parking than a cheap flight to Europe will cost.
The ten most expensive parking airports ran from £75 up to London City’s near £300, while discount airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet offer plenty of flights under £50 and in some cases under £20.
“Inflated parking costs really make the price of any holiday mount up,” said Alex Walker, director of Spacehopper. “It’s crazy that leaving your car in one place is more expensive than a flight covering hundreds of miles.”
But there’s not likely much relief on the horizon, with rising air traffic and in some cases little room to add parking. The answer, government and airport officials say, is leaving cars at home. And for that, many travelers say, there need to be better transport alternatives to the airport.
Photo: Balkonur/Wikimedia
I do like the park – n fly option some hotels in the States offer. You normally stay the night at the hotel before your trip and leave your car at the hotel . The hotel shuttle takes you to the airport and back. The cost is normally less than parking alone .