How to choose the cheapest Luton Airport Parking?

Used to just rocking up to the official Luton Airport parking on the day and paying as you enter? Perfectly understandable as you just want to relax and enjoy your holiday; however, by using Airport Parking Shop and a tiny bit of planning, you can save money and perhaps find an option better suited to you.

A comparison: Turning up at Terminal Car Park 1 is £67.50 for 1 day and £67.50 for each additional day. That is a whopping £472.50 for a week. Our lowest price last week was £34.30 for a 7-day stay.

Tempted? Then, whether it is the nearest car park or the cheapest, we give you the answers below in just five bite-sized chunks.

1 – Understand Your Parking Type Options (and what’s usually cheapest)

Quick Insights

Park & Ride is usually the cheapest (you park further away and take a bus), while Short Stay/Multi-Storey, right by the terminal, is the most expensive.

A Deeper Dive

(but don’t worry you will be back to the surface in no time)

The four main types of parking are Short Stay, Long Stay, Meet & Greet and Valet Parking:

• Short Stay (or Multi-Storey) — usually very near to the terminal and just a few minutes’ walk to departures.
• Long Stay (or Park & Ride) — these two names exist because Long Stay is more often used for official airport car park, while Park & Ride is used by third-party providers. What they have in common is that they usually require a shuttle bus or a longish walk of 10+ minutes.
• Meet & Greet — you leave your car and keys near the terminal; it’s parked for you in a secure compound.
• Valet Parking — like Meet & Greet but with the added bonus that a driver will meet you right by the terminal drop-off point, saving you the trouble of even having to park in a designated bay.

If you’re travelling with the family, you may find Meet & Greet is best suited to you; if you’re not carrying huge amounts of luggage then a cheaper off-airport Park & Ride may be the best option for you.

Luton Airport Carpark Specifics

A quickie: Only Luton Airport sells its official on-airport car parks, so if you are interested in any of the official options below, head over to their website.

Walkable:
Short Stay — Two official multi-storeys: Terminal Car Park 1 (covered, via link bridge; walk ~4 min) and Terminal Car Park 2 (covered; walk ~5 min).
Priority Parking (Drop & Go) — Official hand-over service inside Terminal Car Park 1 (Level 2); walk ~4–5 min to departures.
Mid Stay — Official, on-airport and walkable ~10 min; keep keys.

Meet & Greet:
Official — Has been rebranded as Priority Parking (Drop and Go). The difference? The service no longer offers any meeting or greeting, but means you have to post your keys in a secure box after parking.

Third party — Most meet-and-greet services meet in Terminal Car Park 1 (Short Stay area); you leave keys and walk a few minutes to departures. Providers include 247 Airport Parking, Airport Parking Bay, Help Me Park, TakeOff Luton Airport, APL (Meet & Greet) and Vauxhall Way (Meet & Greet), among others.

Park & Ride:
Official — Long Stay is off-terminal with a free shuttle (~10 min) running ~every 20 min; 24/7.
Third party — There are numerous Park & Ride operators, including Airparks Drop & Go, APH Park & Ride Luton, Vauxhall Way Self Park, Green Park & Ride and Swift Park & Ride. Transfer times range from 2 to 15 min. You can get full details for each one in the table in Section 4 below.
Drop & Go — Many third party Park & Ride providers offer a self-park and a drop-off option; the latter saves you the time of finding a space yourself (but you still need to get to the Park & Ride).

Which parking type is cheapest?

Expect to pay more for convenience. Short Stay/Multi-Storey is usually the most expensive since you’re closest to the terminal and you keep your keys. Meet & Greet can sometimes undercut walkable options on busy dates (operators park cars off-site), but you will have leave your keys and agree handover times. Park & Ride/Long Stay is typically the best value.

Using Airport Parking Shop

Tip: By default, Airport Parking Shop lists prices from low to high irrespective of the parking type, which you can see in the blue box. If you are sure what kind of parking type you want, simply hit the Filter Results option above the results and then select just what you want under Parking Options on the left.

2 – Plan to Book in Advance

Quick Insight

Start looking at least two weeks in advance.

(The Quick Dive-Down Part)

The most expensive way to park is to turn up on the day and pay as you enter. Not only will it cost more but they might not have spaces, leaving you with a lot more stress than having to remember to book! Turning up at Terminal Car Park 1 is £67.50 for 1 day and £67.50 for each additional day. That is a whopping £472.50 for a week. Our lowest price last week was £34.30 for a 7-day stay.

You can save substantially by booking in advance, with the amount you save depending on how far in advance you book: aim for at least two weeks ahead.

Luton Airport - Advance Pricing Comparison (Third Party only)

In Advance	Meet & Greet	Park & Ride
1 Day	£37.52	£41.20
1 Week	£25.07	£25.24
2 Weeks	£22.52	£22.21
1 Month	£22.22	£21.48

As you can see from the table above, the average price of one day’s Park & Ride parking fell from £41.20 to £21.48 when booked one month in advance, compared to one day ahead.

Tip: Prices go up due to availability (or lack of), so at busier times of the year, like school and national holidays, you may want to start looking at prices even earlier.

3 – Don’t Rely Just on Luton Official Car Parks

Quick Insight

Comparing like-for-like, third party car parks are generally cheaper; however, as we can’t sell official ones go to the Luton site to compare prices.

A Deeper Dive

(It is only snorkelling)

Luton, like most airports, has its own car parks — and, like most airports, it has third-party operators providing parking options. You may have read about rogue parking operators at airports and understandably that can be off-putting, but the reality is that lots of trusted, established providers run car parks all across the UK.

Luton official car parks — Terminal Car Park 1, Terminal Car Park 2, Mid Stay, Long Stay, plus Priority Parking (Drop & Go). The rest are third-party.

Why no third-party Short Stay? – By virtue of short stay needing to offer a short walk and therefore be near the terminal and on the airport grounds, it is usually the preserve of the official airport parking – with third-party operators focused on park & ride and meet & greet.

Is official or third-party the cheapest?

Comparing like-for-like (e.g., meet & greet vs meet & greet; park & ride vs park & ride), official is more often than not pricier.

For most airports, Airport Parking Shop lets you compare official and third-party side-by-side by parking type. Unfortunately, as only Luton Airport sells its official parking (we have tried), we can’t show you that comparison in our search results, you will have to go to the Luton Airport website to check. We know going manual and checking multiple browsers windows isn’t fun (That is why we created Airport Parking Shop) but you will have to go old school for this one. Anyway, so do a search for your dates here – you can still rest assured you are getting third party results from just about everyone – and then go to Luton Airport’s site to compare.

4 – Compare Parking Features to Find the Best Value

There is very likely to be more than one provider of your chosen parking option type – Meet & Greet etc. Therefore, once you’ve decided on a parking type, compare what the providers offer to get the right balance of price and convenience:

• Transfer time & frequency: walk or shuttle time and how often for the shuttle.
• Distance from terminal: check how many miles away your meet & greet is taking your vehicle.
• Keys: leave keys is often cheaper; keep keys is a convenience premium.
• Booking flexibility: fully flexible vs pay-now/non-refundable.
• Opening hours: 24/7 collection for late/early flights.
• Accessibility: step-free routes, Blue Badge bays.
• Security & reviews: independent accreditation, recent ratings.
• Total price, not headline: watch out-of-hours, late-return, or oversized-vehicle fees.

Luton Airport Car Parks Features Comparison

Car park	Transfer	Shuttle frequency	Keep keys?	Good to know
Walkable (Official)
Terminal Car Park 1	Walk ~4 min	—	Yes	Covered multi-storey; link bridge; closest official option.
Terminal Car Park 2	Walk ~5 min	—	Yes	Covered multi-storey; short walk to departures.
Mid Stay	Walk ~10 min	—	Yes	Park Mark; 24/7 patrols.
Priority Parking (Drop & Go)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	Handover inside T1 Car Park (Level 2); staff-assisted drop & go.
Park & Ride (Official)
Long Stay	Bus ~10 min	~Every 20 min (24/7)	Yes	Free shuttle to/from the terminal.
Park & Ride (Third party)
Airparks Drop & Go	Bus ~14 min	24/7	No	Large site; allow extra time at peaks.
APH Park & Ride Luton	Bus ~15 min	24/7	No	Staff park your car.
Vauxhall Way Self Park	Bus ~4–5 min	Every 5–10 min	Yes	Self-park; signposted reception/drop-off.
Green Park & Ride	Bus ~2–4 min	At least every 20 min	No	~0.5 miles from terminal.
Swift Park & Ride	Bus ~4 min	~Every 20 min	No	Close to A505/Vauxhall Way.
Yellow Parking Luton	Bus ~5 min	24/7	No	Free shuttle both ways.
Auction House Park & Ride	Bus ~10 min	24/7	No	Crescent Rd (LU2 0AH).
Airport Parking Bay (Park & Ride)	Bus (varies)	—	Varies	Brand offers both P&R and M&G—confirm product at checkout.
Meet & Greet (Third party)
247 Airport Parking (M&G)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	Terminal meet in Short Stay/CP1; 24/7.
Airport Parking Bay (M&G)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	Call ahead; meet at Short Stay area.
Help Me Park (M&G)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	Terminal handover; leave keys.
TakeOff Luton Airport (M&G)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	Terminal handover; leave keys.
APL (M&G)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	24-hour operation; insured drivers.
Vauxhall Way (M&G)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	Meet at Terminal Car Park 1; 24/7.
Swift Park (M&G)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	Usually call ~40 min ahead for handover.
Purple Parking (M&G)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	24/7 terminal meet; off-site storage.
Luton Stress Free Parking (M&G)	Walk ~4–5 min	—	No	Terminal meet; leave keys.

Using Airport Parking Shop

Tip: After doing a search the features above will be displayed in the tabs, or by hitting the More Info button.

5 – Compare Sites to Find the Cheapest and Save More

Quick insight

Not every comparison site sells every car park, and the same space can be a different price elsewhere. Check more than one site—or save time by using Airport Parking Shop.

The Detail

(I ran out of deep dive riffs)

So, you are ready to save money — you’ve even planned out how many more drinks you can get at the pool bar. But then you google for Luton Airport parking, you see so many sites to choose from, and your head starts to hurt. Which one is best?

The world of airport parking is made up of lots of businesses:

• The official airport car parks usually run by the airport.
• National third-party car park chains — for example APH, NCP or Purple Parking — who have branded, large-capacity car parks where you can park yourself and keep your keys (or hand them over for Meet & Greet).
• Small independent ones who may be regional.
• Meet & Greet providers who take your car to a secure compound that you won’t visit.

Use a comparison site to cut through the noise

This definitely helps but not every car park works with every comparison site and sometimes, different sites charge different prices for the same space. Ever been searching for car insurance and found a provider available on one comparison site and not another, or at a different price? Airport parking is no different with the added complication that some comparison sites are selling their own spaces too.

Search more than one

The key therefore in finding the cheapest price is to check as many different sites as possible. As with anything else, there is a cost-benefit ratio so you might set yourself a target of the top 3 or 4. Or you might just give up!

All the comparison sites have a lowest price guarantee — isn’t that great?

Checking multiple sites for lowest prices is a time-consuming exercise so why not just rely on the cheapest price guarantee of the first one? Cheapest price guarantees are fantastic, but it is down to you to go find a lower price elsewhere, often within 24 hours, and then contact the original provider, send them the link, and wait for their refund. Something most of us don’t have time for.

How Airport Parking Shop Can Help

That is why Airport Parking Shop is here. We compare the car parks for you, and we even compare the comparison sites. We are independent, we don’t have any car parks of our own. Check the logos for our partners above and then look down the search results for airport parking and you can see we work with almost everyone (find one we don’t, let us know and we’ll get on it).

How we save time and money:

• See more options: both independent car parks and comparison sites.
• Compare providers: see prices for the same space, all next to each other in one search.
• See like-for-like: compare Park & Ride with Park & Ride, Meet & Greet with Meet & Greet.
• Quickly narrow down: filter by parking type, customer reviews, providers and even distance to the terminal.
• Switch dates in a click to see the cheapest.
• Understand feature differences: check summary cards or tap through for full details.

What terminology is helpful to understand pricing?

Meet & Greet vs Valet Parking

Very similar, but Valet is typically a premium handover right by the terminal.

Park & Ride vs Long Stay

These terms are often used interchangeably with park & ride preferred by third-party operators and long stay by the official airport. In general, both involve a bus ride or a longish walk (depending on the size of the airport). At Luton, Long Stay uses a free shuttle (~10 minutes, 24/7); off-airport Park & Ride brands use quick courtesy buses (~10–15 minutes).

On-airport vs Off-airport

Many comparison sites have an On-Airport filter and a separate one for Park & Ride. The on-airport category might seem self-explanatory, but the search results can often include Long Stay, which may be a bus ride away — similar to Park & Ride. The reason is that Long Stay is usually owned by the airport and so put into “On-Airport”. We think this can be confusing, so we don’t categorise like that. We put all bus-served options together under Park & Ride and all walkable ones under On-Airport so you can compare them like-for-like.

Short Stay

Short Stay doesn't mean you have to stay for a short period of time. The price and closeness to the airport means it is usually used by friends or relatives sending someone off, but you can park for a week or two if you want. Just remember it will cost you a lot more.

More Information

Motorbike Parking at Luton Airport

Charges for parking your motorbike at Luton Airport differ depending on the duration of your stay. Follow the link to our dedicated motorbike parking page for full information.

Luton Central Car Storage

If you plan on driving to the airport in a van, you may find it hard to find a car park that can accommodate your vehicle. As well as providing long term car and van storage facilities for local businesses, this company has been in the airport parking business since 1966 and may be just what you need. It is conveniently situated only a mile from the airport meaning that the transfer is a mere five-minute drive in one of their minibuses. Extra time should of course be allowed at peak times. Contented customers report that the company has gone the extra mile, for instance defrosting windscreens in bad weather.

Postcode: LU2 0SX