How to choose the cheapest Stansted Airport Parking?

Used to just rocking up to the official Stansted site 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: Turn Up & Park prices at Stansted are £67 per 24 hours in Short Stay (Blue/Green/Orange) and £45 per 24 hours in Mid Stay (each additional 24 hours is charged at the same rate). Our lowest price last week was £49.00 for a 7-day stay.

Tempted? Then, whether it’s 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, right by the terminal, is the most expensive. Off-airport park & ride shuttles can be surprisingly quick (think 2–5 minutes), so don’t assume “off-airport” means “far.”

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 options:

• Short stay (or multi-storey) — usually a few minutes’ walk to departures.
• Long stay (or park & ride) — These two names exist because Long Stay is more often used for the name of the official airport car park, while Park & Ride is used by third-party providers. What they have in common is that they usually require a bus ride or are at the very least a longish walk of 10 minutes or so (depending on the airport).
• Meet & greet — you leave your car and keys in an agreed part of the airport, and it is taken to a secure car park off-site.
• Valet parking — like meet & greet but with the added bonus that a driver will meet you at the terminal drop off point, saving you the trouble of even having to go to the agreed space.

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, a cheaper off-airport park & ride may be the best option for you.

Stansted Airport Carpark Specifics

Short Stay — There are several short stay zones near the terminal: Short Stay Premium Orange/Red/Yellow are about a 1–4 minute walk; while Green and Blue are further, the latter at 10–12 minutes (leaving you feeling blue if you don’t like walking and rain). But in its defence it is cheaper.

Meet & Greet — Official Meet & Greet is a ~2-minute walk to the terminal after you drop your keys at reception; there’s also Official Valet. Third-party meet & greet options include APH Meet & Greet, FHR Meet & Greet, Platinum VIP Meet & Greet, and Official Meet & Greet Plus.

Park & Ride — Official choices are Mid Stay (free shuttle ~7 minutes), Long Stay (typically ~10–15 minutes; buses around every 15 minutes), and JetParks which is quoted as farther than Long Stay. Off-airport options include Maple Parking Park & Ride (on-demand shuttle ~2–3 minutes), Bubble Park & Ride (~3 minutes), APH Park & Ride (~5 minutes), Go Airport Parking Park & Ride (~3 minutes), Peak Park & Ride (~3 minutes), Enjoy Parking Park & Ride (3–5 minutes), FHR Park & Ride (~3 minutes), and I Love Park & Ride (~1–1.5 miles from the terminal; on-demand). (Short ride, long saving.)

Long Stay — At Stansted, as walking is not an option from Long Stay, this sits under park & ride (shuttle to terminal; keep your keys).

Mid Stay — Between Short Stay and Park & Ride, it is either a godsend that exactly matches your distance vs price needs, or a head scratcher that keeps you up for countless nights as you evaluate the incremental extra time you can spend getting ready versus extra money you have to spend on your space. And every airport is different: the 7-minute journey time is usually a walk at many airports, but at Stansted it is a shuttle ride.

Drop-off & pick-up — Express Set Down (drop-off only) is £7 for up to 15 minutes; for pick-up, use Short Stay Orange/Green/Blue (e.g., £10 up to 30 minutes). There’s also free pick-up in Mid Stay for up to 1 hour with shuttle. (Your wallet may prefer the bus.)

Motorbikes — Stansted offers a 50% reduction for motorcyclists. (Half the price, same breeze-in-your-hair feeling.)

Which parking type is cheapest?

Expect to pay more for convenience. Short stay tends to be priciest as your car sits closest to the terminal and your keys stay in your pocket. Meet & greet can still undercut long stay/park & ride at times (meet & greet providers take your car off airport to cheaper locations, so they can be very competitive), but you’ll need to leave your keys and agree drop-off/collection windows.

Stansted Airport Parking - Short Stay, Meet & Greet and Park & Ride 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 £25.60 compared to Park & Ride which was £20.64. That is a saving of approximately £5 a day.

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 (you’ll see it in the blue box). If you know the type you want, hit Filter Results and select just what you want under Parking Options.

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—cue more stress than simply remembering to book.

Stansted publishes Turn Up & Park rates: Short Stay (Blue/Green/Orange) £67 per 24 hours; Mid Stay £45 per 24 hours. Each additional 24-hour period is charged at the same rate. You’ll often save substantially by pre-booking. (Dynamic pricing means late bookers subsidise the early birds—sorry.)

Stansted Airport - Advance Pricing Comparison

As you can see from the table above, the average price of one day’s Short Stay parking fell from £36.69 to £25.60 when booked two weeks in advance, compared to one day ahead. The one day ahead price was also half the turn up at the gate price.

Tip: Prices rise with demand. Around school/national holidays, start checking earlier.

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

Quick Insight

Third-party car parks at Stansted are usually cheaper than official ones and can offer faster transfer times.

A Deeper Dive

(It is only snorkelling)

Stansted, like most airports, has its own car parks which cover Short Stay, Long Stay, and Meet & Greet, among others. 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.

Stansted’s official set includes Short Stay (multiple zones), Mid Stay, Long Stay, Meet & Greet, JetParks and Valet. The rest — Maple, Bubble, APH, Go Airport Parking, Peak, Enjoy, FHR, I Love Park & Ride, and more — are third-party.

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. Of the official options JetParks is the cheapest but has a slower transfer time compared to third-party park & rides like Peak, My CSL and I Love. Don’t forget — pricing is dynamic, so do a search and confirm.

(Sorry, a quick rant – pricing is dynamic, so we try not to litter our pages with teaser cheapest prices based on a point in the future when we know nobody is flying. We do give you some lowest prices based on actual booking in the last week, but otherwise we encourage you to do a search. We don’t collect your email or anything else so there is no inconvenience for you. Okay…rant over!)

Tip: Don’t assume “official = closest/most convenient.” Check transfer times and shuttle frequency.

Using Airport Parking Shop

Airport Parking Shop lets you compare official and third-party side-by-side by parking type. For example, anything requiring a bus sits under Park & Ride — we don’t hide official long-stay options under an “on-airport” filter where you can’t compare like-with-like.

4 – Compare Parking Features to Find the Best Value

There’s very likely to be more than one provider for your chosen parking type. At Stansted you’ll find at least 6 off-airport park & ride operators plus the two official bus-served car parks (Mid Stay and Long Stay). So once you’ve picked the type, compare features to find the right balance of price and convenience:

• Transfer time & frequency: walk time or shuttle time; how often the bus runs.
• Distance from terminal: if meet & greet, how far is the reception from departures?
• Keys: leaving keys is often cheaper; keeping them is a convenience premium.
• Booking flexibility: fully flexible vs pay-now/non-refundable.
• Opening hours: 24/7 collections for early/late flights.
• Accessibility: step-free routes, Blue Badge bays.
• Security & reviews: Park Mark, recent ratings.
• Total price, not headline: watch out-of-hours fees, late return, oversized vehicles.

Examples: Mid Stay shuttle is around 7 minutes; Long Stay is typically ~10–15 minutes with buses around every 15 minutes. Maple Parking Park & Ride quotes ~2–3 minutes on-demand; I Love Park & Ride is ~1–1.5 miles away with on-demand transfers (24/7). (Short shuttle, long savings.)

Using Airport Parking Shop

After you run a search, you’ll see these features right in the result cards or under More info.

5 – Compare Sites to Find the Cheapest and Save More

Quick insight

Not every airport parking site works with every car park — and sometimes they sell the same space at different prices. Checking more than one site (or using a meta-comparison like us) helps.

The Detail

(I ran out of deep dive riffs)

So, you’re ready to save money — you’ve even planned how many more drinks you can get at the pool bar. But then you google for Stansted 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 run by the airport.
• National third-party chains (e.g., APH, Maple) with branded, large-capacity sites.
• Smaller independents.
• Meet & greet operators who whisk your car to secure compounds you’ll never visit.

Smaller ones may rely wholly on comparison sites; larger ones often sell directly and via partners (sometimes re-branded). Result: lots of choice and understandable throbbing in your head.

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’s why Airport Parking Shop is here. We compare the car parks and the comparison sites. We’re independent (we don’t run any car parks). Scan the partner logos above and the search results below — you’ll see we work with almost everyone (find a gap; we’ll try to add 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, side-by-side.
• See like-for-like: compare park & ride with park & ride, meet & greet with meet & greet.
• Quickly narrow down: filter by parking type, reviews, providers and even distance to the terminal.
• Switch dates in a click: easily change arrival/return times to spot cheaper combos.
• Understand feature differences: scan key features on the cards or dive into More info.

What terminology is helpful to understand pricing?

Meet & greet vs valet parking

Similar beasts, but valet is the premium flavour. With meet & greet you usually park in a designated bay and drop keys at reception; valet is often kerbside and even closer.

Park & ride vs long stay

These are often used interchangeably: the official airport tends to use Long Stay; third parties say park & ride. Both usually involve a shuttle.

On-airport vs off-airport

Many sites filter “on-airport” separately from “park & ride”, but official long-stay is still a bus ride away — functionally the same as off-airport park & ride. We put all bus-served options together so you can compare apples with apples.

Short Stay

Short stay doesn’t mean you have to stay for a short period of time. It’s just the closest option — great for drop-offs, goodbyes, or “I forgot the passports” sprints. Your wallet will feel the proximity tax.

How much is Stansted Airport Parking?

Stansted car park prices vary hugely as they are based on how long you’re staying, proximity to the airport, which provider you choose and if you want to book more convenient services such as valet or meet and greet.

Generally, parking is priced from £7.00 per day (lowest daily price based on quotes made over the past 7 days). If you’re looking to get the cheapest airport parking, we recommend comparing all the deals with our quote finder and booking in advance.

Can I park my motorbike at Stansted Airport?

Motorcyclists receive a 50% reduction on parking prices at Stansted Airport. Our article looking at motorbike parking at airports gives further details on what options you have and how to book.

What availability is there for disabled drivers?

There is plenty of accessible and disabled parking at Stansted Airport. You have the choice of Blue Badge parking close to the airport as well as fully accessible transfers including wheelchair-friendly buses and fully trained staff.

Car Park providers will be happy to offer extra assistance and take requests to make sure you have a smooth journey. It’s worth contacting the car park provider in advance to make any requests you may have including Blue Badge bays, meet and greet, or specialist bus transfers to the airport.

If you’re having trouble on the day, most car parks have Help Points installed so you can ask for an extra hand at any time. Where are the blue badge bays at Stansted? Most car parks have blue badge bays or offer a meet and greet service. For short stay or on-site car parks, the disabled parking bays are located with the shortest walk from the terminal as possible. If you’re in doubt, talk to a friendly advisor at your chosen car park who will be able to advise you.

Options for Stansted Parking for Vans?

Vans are welcome in most airport car parks but it’s worth checking that your vehicle isn’t too big for the multi-storey or car park gates. The height restrictions at the Official Stansted Airport car park is 2.0 metres. Private car park providers may vary and some have no vehicle guidelines at all, so it’s worth checking with a member of staff before you book.

Trailers are not permitted and we recommend keeping accessories like ladders at home rather than leaving them strapped to your vehicle.

Are there any discounts for Parking at Stansted for NHS workers, Military personnel or Concessions?

Being an NHS employee can get you up to 30% off your booking but only at particular car parks. Check your NHS benefits account to your valid discounts. Unfortunately, there aren’t any discounts or codes available for military passengers. The easiest way to get the best deal for you is by comparing your favourite Stansted Car Parks with our helpful quote form.

Stansted Airport parking feedback? Issues, cancellation, complaints?

Airport Parking Shop is a price comparison site to help you find the cheapest rates for Stansted Airport Parking. If you have an issue or complaint about specific car park services, then we recommend contacting your car park provider. Here's our complete list of airport car park contacts.

If your issue is with your booking, or have a problem with our site then please do contact the team at booking@airport-parking-shop.co.uk.