Don't overpay for London City Airport parking. Compare prices from 8 leading sites plus independent operators in one search to find the best deal.

How to choose the cheapest London City Airport Parking?

Used to just rocking up to the official London City 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 the official On-Site (Main Stay) car park is £74.90 for 8 – 24 hours. Our lowest price last week was £204.47 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 the Meet & Greet service 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.

London City Airport Carpark Specifics

Walkable:

Short Stay – There is no short stay or even long stay car park at London City, but a Main Stay that is a walk of 5–7 minutes; keep keys; CCTV and barrier-controlled.

Meet & Greet:

Third party — Brands include Butterfly (often sold as Greet & Go/Purple Parking) and other operators that meet you in the On-Site (Main Stay) car park; you leave keys and walk a few minutes to the terminal.

Valet Parking — Valet / Meet & Greet operated by the airport: handover in the Main Stay car park; leave keys; short walk to check-in.

Park & Ride:

There aren’t any official or third-party operators here. Yes, that is unusual but London City Airport’s location near the centre of London and the price of real estate is likely the cause of this.

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 leave your keys and agree handover times. Park & Ride is typically the best value where available (The limited options at London City airport mean this acts as a point of information if you use other airports as well).

London City Airport Parking - Short Stay and Meet & Greet Comparison

The table above shows that over the six months from the 1st April to 31st September 2025 the average price of a day in Short Stay booked two weeks in advance was £31.27 compared to Meet & Greet which was £34.25. At London City, Meet & Greet is more expensive than Short Stay.

Note: The above is for guidance on price differences not an estimate of your price. It includes quotes for 1 day's parking up to 14+ days and you will pay a much lower price if you book for more days. In addition, it includes all providers in that category - for example, Park & Ride - and some will be more expensive. You can see a list of the cheapest providers over the last week above or simply do a search to compare latest prices across all the leading comparison sites. We don’t own any car parks, we are only interested in getting you the cheapest price.

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 for 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! Just turning up at the official On-Site (Main Stay) car park is £74.90 for 8 – 24 hours.

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.

London City Airport - Advance Pricing Comparison

As you can see from the table above, the average price of one day’s Short Stay parking fell from £45.75 to £25.01 when booked one month in advance, compared to one day ahead. The one day ahead price is also significantly less than just turning up at the gate.

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 London City Official Car Parks

Quick Insight

Across airports in general, third-party options tend to be cheaper than official airport car parks, but London City has no park & ride third-party options and just a couple of meet & Greet ones.

A Deeper Dive

(It is only snorkelling)

We usually talk about in this section about how the airport has third-party options – car parks not owned by the airport – and official car parks. While London City Airport still has a couple of third-party meet & greet providers, it unusually doesn’t have any park & ride ones. In fact, it only has one official one as well – it’s near central London and there is excellent public transport.

London City official car parks — On-Site (Main Stay) and Valet / Meet & Greet (official). The rest are third-party.

Is official or third-party the cheapest?

In short, while the general rule that third-party tends to be cheaper still applies, you will have to go with the official parking here if you want to self-park.

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.

4 – Compare Parking Features to Find the Best Value

There is very likely to be more than one provider of your chosen parking option – there are 3 Meet & Greet providers at London City Airport. Once you’ve decided on a parking type, compare what they 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.

London City snapshot — distances & brands

Walkable (Official)
• On-Site (Main Stay) — Walk ~5–7 min • Keep keys: Yes • Barrier-controlled; CCTV.
• Valet / Meet & Greet (official) — Handover in Main Stay • Keep keys: No • Walk a few minutes to departures.

Bus-served (Official)
• None at present — on-site is walkable, so no official shuttle car park.

Park & Ride (third party)
• Limited around LCY — where offered, transfers typically ~5–10 min; check first/last shuttle times before booking.

Meet & Greet (third party)
• Butterfly (sold by Purple’s “Greet & Go”) — Meet in Main Stay; leave keys; short walk to terminal.
• Other third-party meet & greet brands may appear seasonally; always check operating hours and storage location before booking.

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 London City 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 Purple Parking / partners — who have branded car parks or operate 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 is 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 third-party 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. At London City, “Long Stay” is essentially the On-Site (Main Stay) and is walkable, so there’s no official shuttle.

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 at some airports is a bus ride away — and similar to Park & Ride. 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.

London City Guide

Stretching over much of the south-east of England and situated on the River Thames near the English Channel, London is Europe's largest city. There are a few airports which serve London, including London City Airport, which is the capital's main business airport. Situated only 10 miles from the shopper's paradise that is the West End, six miles from the heart of London and three miles from London's newest business and financial centre, Canary Wharf, London City Airport is a flourishing establishment.

London is one of the world's foremost centres of theatre, classical music, and fine arts. Trafalgar Square's National Gallery in the West End is home to fine paintings, while Shaftesbury Avenue and Covent Garden are alive with street plays and music. The British Museum holds worldwide historical objects. Across the river from the west end is the "Millenium Mile" of modern art - Tate Modern and the Saatchi, famous theatres and concert halls, and the London Eye, giving spectacular views over the whole of the city, including the nearby Houses of Parliament.