All the experts and many not-quite-so-experts agree that air travel will test your endurance this summer. Planes, airports, gates, even usually serene lounges will be packed. Why expect airport parking to be different? If you plan to drive your car to your departure airport and leave it there until you return, you have to make sure you can get a place. And you want to keep the cost as low as possible. Fortunately, you have options.
Official Airport Parking
Almost all commercial airports offer paid long-term parking, and most offer different levels of location and price, from closed-in hourly to remote long-term or “economy.” Parking is often an airport’s largest single revenue stream, and airports are not averse to charging what the market will bear. That can be stiff: “Economy” parking at Boston’s Logan Airport costs $58 for the first day then $29 a day, San Francisco long-term costs $25 a day, and even my small home airport at Medford, Oregon, charges $12 a day long term.
All airport parking used to be on a “When we’re full, go somewhere else” basis. Recently, however, many big airports have begun accepting advance reservations with guaranteed space—possibly at a surcharge or limited to one of the higher-base-rate lots.
