What airport parking costs in America: a 150-airport survey

The most expensive airports to park at

These are the priciest economy/overnight daily rates among the 50 busiest North American airports, from rates published on each airport's own website in May 2026 (priced for a Jul 25–26, 2026 stay).

Nashville tops the list at about $44 a day — roughly $15 above the $28.70 survey average — with Miami a dollar behind and San Francisco and San Diego tied at $42. If you're flying from one of these, compare lot types before you commit: see the per-airport breakdowns for Nashville (BNA) parking, Miami (MIA) parking, and San Francisco (SFO) parking.

The cheapest major airports to park at

At the other end of the same May 2026 survey, three big airports still park you overnight for under $20 a day.

Houston Hobby's $16 a day is nearly one-third of Nashville's rate — a $28-per-day gap that adds up to almost $200 over a week-long trip, for the same product: a parked car.

Headline rate vs the cheapest economy lot

How much you pay depends heavily on which lot you pick, not just which airport. A 2023 study that hunted down each airport's single cheapest economy lot at the 50 busiest U.S. airports found an average of just $16.64 per day— far below the $28.70 economy/overnight average above. The two surveys use different methodologies (and different years), so they aren't directly comparable — but together they bracket the real-world range: the remotest economy lot can cost roughly half the headline daily rate.

Cheapest available economy lot per airport, 50 busiest U.S. airports, 2023 (Upgraded Points). Rates have risen since; use these as a relative ranking, not today's price.

The regional pattern

Two patterns hold across both surveys. First, land-constrained coastal airports charge the most: San Diego, Los Angeles, and the three New York-area airports (JFK, LaGuardia, Newark) filled the entire expensive half of the 2023 cheapest-economy-lot table, and San Diego and San Francisco sit near the top of the 2026 overnight-rate list too. Second, the Midwest parks cheapest — Kansas City ($7.50), Columbus ($8.33), Indianapolis and Cincinnati ($9) held four of the five cheapest spots in 2023. The Sun Belt splits: Nashville and Miami now top the 2026 list, while Tampa, Raleigh-Durham, and both Houston airports stay cheap.

Park, or take an Uber?

For a long-weekend trip, parking in the cheapest economy lot beat a round-trip Uber at 36 of the 50 busiest U.S. airports in the 2023 study; the Uber won at only 14. The largest gap ran the other way: at San Diego, taking an Uber saved $82.12 — expensive parking plus a short ride into town flips the math. The break-even shifts with trip length (parking costs scale per day; the ride is a fixed cost), so long trips favor the ride and short trips favor the lot. Our getting-around pages walk the door-to-door options airport by airport.

Method and sample

Parking figures on this page are compiled by tsawaittimes.app from published third-party studies, each cited inline: the Casino.ca survey of economy/overnight rates at the 50 busiest North American airports (rates gathered from each airport’s own website, May 2026, priced for a Jul 25–26, 2026 stay) and the Upgraded Points 2023 study of the cheapest economy lot at the 50 busiest U.S. airports. The two studies use different methodologies (overnight rate vs cheapest economy lot) and are not directly comparable. tsawaittimes.app did not independently collect these rates.

tsawaittimes.app tracks parking options — on-site garages, economy lots, and off-airport alternatives — across 150 U.S. airports in our airport parking directory. The dollar figures on this page are limited to the two cited rate surveys above; we did not independently collect these rates, and we do not publish unverified prices.

Parking in context: the fee economy

Parking is one line in a fast-growing stack of travel fees. For scale, from the sources cited below:

• U.S. checked-baggage fee revenue. $7.27 billion in 2024 (then a record); more than $7.4 billion in 2025 (CY2024–CY2025 (BTS)).
• Global airline ancillary revenue. $148.4B in 2024; $157B projected for 2025 (15.7% of airline revenue, vs 9.1% in 2016) (2024 actual / 2025 projection (IdeaWorksCompany/CarTrawler)).
• First-checked-bag fees after the spring-2026 increases. United/Delta/Southwest $45 prepaid ($50 airport); JetBlue $39 standard/$49 peak; American, Alaska, Hawaiian (mainland) held at $35/$40 (As of April 2026).

See airline baggage fees compared for the full bag-fee picture, and the busiest days to fly for when those lots actually fill up.

How much does airport parking cost per day?

Economy or overnight parking averages $28.70 per day at the 50 busiest North American airports, per a May 2026 survey of rates published on each airport's own website — up roughly 8% from the $26.51 average a year earlier. If you hunt for each airport's single cheapest economy lot, the average drops sharply: a 2023 study of the 50 busiest U.S. airports put the cheapest-economy-lot average at $16.64 per day.

Which airport has the most expensive parking?

Nashville (BNA), at about $44 per day for economy/overnight parking as of May 2026 — ahead of Miami (MIA) at $43 and San Francisco (SFO) and San Diego (SAN) at $42. By a different measure, the cheapest available economy lot, San Diego topped a 2023 study at $38 per day, ahead of Los Angeles (LAX) and the three big New York-area airports at $35.

Which airports have the cheapest parking?

Among the busiest airports, Houston Hobby (HOU) is the cheapest for economy/overnight parking at about $16 per day, followed by Tampa (TPA) and Raleigh-Durham (RDU) at $18, per the May 2026 survey. On the cheapest-economy-lot measure, Kansas City (MCI) led a 2023 study at $7.50 per day, with Columbus (CMH) at $8.33 and Houston Bush (IAH), Indianapolis (IND), and Cincinnati (CVG) at $9.

Is it cheaper to park at the airport or take an Uber?

Usually parking. For a long-weekend trip, parking in the cheapest economy lot beat a round-trip Uber at 36 of the 50 busiest U.S. airports in a 2023 study; the Uber won at only 14. The biggest exception was San Diego, where taking an Uber saved $82.12 — the pattern flips at airports where even economy parking is expensive and the airport sits close to town.

Cite or share this data

Citation line: Source: tsawaittimes.app — What airport parking costs in America: a 150-airport survey, 2026. The tables and charts on this page are free to republish with a link back to this page (CC BY 4.0). All figures trace to the published rate surveys listed below; please carry the underlying study attributions with them.