Heathrow parking: every official product, price, and which to pick

Heathrow parking is split across five official products run by the airport itself, plus the T5-only Pod Parking and a long list of off-airport operators on the perimeter roads. The five official products are Park & Ride (the cheapest), Terminal Parking (the closest), Meet & Greet (drop the keys at a valet), Valet (drop on the forecourt), and Priority Park & Ride (the renamed Business car park, currently only open at Terminal 5). All five take pre-booking through Heathrow's own site, where the advance rate is typically much lower than the drive-up rate; Terminal Parking is the exception in scope, bookable only for stays of nine hours or more and up to 99 days ahead.

Three rename notes worth flagging up front, because airport signage still uses the old names in places. Long Stay was renamed Park & Ride on 16 September 2024. Short Stay was renamed Terminal Parking on 29 September 2025. Business Parking was renamed Priority Park & Ride on the same date in 2025. Existing bookings made under the old names are still valid in the renamed car parks; the locations have not changed.

Drive-up prices are the on-the-day gate rate. Pre-booked rates are usually significantly lower and vary by lead time and dates. Heathrow is inside the expanded ULEZ; a non-compliant vehicle pays the daily charge to drive to the airport regardless of where it parks. See ULEZ and Congestion Charge for the rules.

The cheapest of the official Heathrow parking products and the right call for any trip over a day if convenience is not the priority. Drive-up prices start at £46.80 for the first 24 hours and £37.40 for each additional 24 hours; pre-booked online the daily rate drops to £11 to £15 a day depending on lead time. The car parks sit on the Northern and Eastern Perimeter Roads, with separate sites for T2/T3 (shared, postcode TW6 2SB), T4 (TW6 3XL), and T5 (TW6 2RL).

The transfer is a free courtesy bus that runs every 15 minutes between 04:00 and 23:30, terminating at the terminal forecourt. Bus journey is 7 to 10 minutes plus the wait at the stop. Plan an extra 25 minutes door to door for the transfer. Outside the operating window, transfers run on request via 020 8745 6261.

The 29-minute free window is the useful detail that does not feature in the marketing. Drive in, take a ticket, drive out within 29 minutes and you pay nothing. This is the answer to "where can I pick someone up at Heathrow for free", because forecourt pick-up is not permitted and the £7 drop-off charge applies to any forecourt entry. Beyond 29 minutes the charge is £9.40 for stays up to 1 hour 59 minutes. Detail and current prices on the Park & Ride page.

The multi-storey car park attached to the terminal building at T2, T3, and T5, with a covered, step-free walk of 2 to 5 minutes to the check-in hall or the arrivals exit. The T4 multi-storey closed on 23 June 2026 for redevelopment. The product is built around the airport's hourly tariff structure rather than a flat daily rate: £8.00 for the first 29 minutes, £15.50 for 45 to 59 minutes, £20.00 for 1 to 2 hours, ramping up to a 24-hour cap of £98.00. Each additional 24-hour block is the same £98.00.

The trade-off is the price for any stay over a few hours. Twenty-four hours in the Terminal Parking car park costs more than two pre-booked days at Park & Ride. The right use cases are short pickups where the £8 charge for half an hour beats the bus wait, longer pickups where Park & Ride's 29-minute free window is not enough, and overnight stays when the closeness matters more than the price. Stays of nine hours or more can be pre-booked up to two hours before arrival; under nine hours pay the gate rate on exit at one of the ticket machines or the exit barrier. Full picture and per-terminal layout on the Terminal Parking page.

The drop-and-forget option at Terminals 2, 3, and 5. You drive to the Meet & Greet reception inside the Terminal Parking car park (level 1 at T2 and T3, level 4 at T5), hand the keys to a valet, walk straight to check-in. The valet parks the car at a secure compound on the airport and brings it back to the same reception at the time agreed at booking. Damage limitation cameras take 360-degree pictures of the car at drop-off and pickup at all three receptions. Meet & Greet was withdrawn from Terminal 4 on 23 June 2026, when the T4 multi-storey closed.

Drive-up rates start from £138.60 a day on Heathrow's own service. Pre-booked through Heathrow's site, the starting advance band is £143.40, with shorter stays often cheaper per day; third-party Park Mark accredited operators can run lower on advance bookings. The reception is in the Terminal Parking car park, not on the forecourt: a common confusion with Valet (see below), which is the forecourt drop product. Detail and the operator comparison on the meet and greet parking page.

Two products that often get bundled together with Meet & Greet but are not the same thing.

Valet

The forecourt-drop variant. You drive directly to a dedicated lane on the terminal forecourt, hand over the keys to the valet, and walk straight into the building. The £7 drop-off charge is waived in full for Valet bookings, which is the meaningful financial advantage versus Meet & Greet. The product is available at Terminals 2, 3, and 5 only; Terminal 4 does not run Valet. Prices vary by date and length of stay through Heathrow's online quote widget; on shorter stays Valet and Meet & Greet are usually priced close together, with Valet a little higher because of the forecourt convenience. The car is returned to a dedicated area of the Terminal Parking car park on collection.

Priority Park & Ride (formerly Business Parking)

The renamed Business Parking product, aimed at frequent travellers parking 1 to 5 nights. Drive-up rates start from £47.90 a day, with slightly wider spaces and a covered footbridge route from the car park to the terminal in 5 to 7 minutes. Important caveat for 2026: the Priority Park & Ride for Terminals 2 and 3 is currently closed for operational reasons, with passengers contacted about alternative arrangements. Only the Terminal 5 Priority Park & Ride is open at the time of writing. Verify the live status on Heathrow's site if your trip is from T2 or T3. Detail on the business parking page.

A Terminal 5-only product, distinct in look and feel from the rest of the Heathrow car parks. The Pod Parking car park sits a short distance from the T5 terminal building, connected by the Heathrow Pod: 21 driverless electric four-seater pods running on 3.8 km of one-way guideway between two stations in the car park and one at T5. The journey takes about six minutes. Pods carry up to four passengers and luggage; the published waiting time is no more than 30 seconds at any of the three stations.

The pods operate from 04:00 to 00:30. Outside those hours a courtesy shuttle bus replaces the pod service. Drive-up rates are £59.60 a day; pre-booked rates are typically lower and vary by lead time and dates. On a drive-up day that is a small premium over the Terminal 5 Priority Park & Ride and Park & Ride, both of which run a courtesy bus, with the on-demand pod itself the feature you pay extra for. The system has been in continuous commercial service since May 2011, the world's first personal rapid transit in commercial use. Full detail on the Pod Parking page.

Every product above is documented per terminal on its own page, with the specific car park location, walking time, postcode, and access road. The terminal pages themselves cover the broader practical picture of arriving and departing.

• Terminal 2 parking. Terminal Parking at TW6 1EW, attached to the building. Park & Ride shared with T3 at TW6 2SB on the Eastern Perimeter Road. Priority Park & Ride currently closed. Meet & Greet and Valet operational. For the broader terminal picture see Terminal 2.
• Terminal 3 parking. Terminal Parking at TW6 1QG, attached to the building. Park & Ride shared with T2 at TW6 2SB. Priority Park & Ride currently closed. Meet & Greet and Valet operational. For the broader terminal picture see Terminal 3.
• Terminal 4 parking. The T4 multi-storey (Terminal Parking and Meet & Greet) closed on 23 June 2026 for a forecourt and car park redevelopment. All T4 passenger parking now uses the Park & Ride at TW6 3XL on Scylla Road, with Zone A next to reception free for up to 2 hours and a shuttle every 5 minutes. No Priority Park & Ride and no Valet at T4. For the broader terminal picture see Terminal 4.
• Terminal 5 parking. Terminal Parking at TW6 2GA, attached to the building. Park & Ride at TW6 2RL on the Northern Perimeter Road. Priority Park & Ride open as normal. Meet & Greet, Valet, and Pod Parking operational. For the broader terminal picture see Terminal 5.

For the recurring questions across all four terminal parking pages, the parking FAQs page covers the quick lookups.

Several third-party operators run their own car parks on the perimeter roads and in the villages around the airport, with a shuttle bus to the terminals. The major names are Purple Parking, APH, Airparks, Park Mark, and Holiday Extras as the main aggregators. None of these is an official Heathrow product; the cars sit on private land off-airport and the shuttle is the operator's responsibility, not Heathrow's.

The trade-off is straightforward. Off-airport pricing for a week is usually lower than even pre-booked Park & Ride, sometimes substantially, because the operator pays no on-airport pitch fee. Against that, the shuttle is slower (10 to 25 minutes each way, on the operator's schedule rather than every 15 minutes), the car is further from the airport, and the customer experience varies more between operators than between Heathrow's own car parks. The Park Mark accreditation is the police-backed standard for car park security; use a Park Mark accredited operator and check recent reviews before booking the cheapest result. For a week-plus stay where saving £20 to £50 matters more than the extra transfer time, off-airport is a sound choice; for a shorter trip the saving rarely justifies the friction. The full guide to off-airport parking covers the operators, the Park Mark and AM-GO safety checks, and how to avoid a rogue operator.

One bundle worth knowing about for early flights: park and stay packages combine a nearby hotel night with parking for the trip, often at a total price close to a week's standalone parking. The hotel runs a shuttle to the terminal in the morning. Hotels that include their own parking for guests, rather than a bundled stay, are on hotels with their own car park.

The decision rule for picking the right Heathrow parking product, expressed as a sequence of questions. Each cuts the options down further.

How long is the stay? Under two hours, Terminal Parking. Two hours to a day, Terminal Parking if the doors matter, otherwise Park & Ride. One day to a week, pre-booked Park & Ride wins on price for most travellers. Over a week, off-airport often beats Park & Ride if the extra transfer time is acceptable.

How much does convenience matter? If you would rather hand the keys over than walk to a bus, Meet & Greet. If you want to drop the car at the kerb and skip the £7 drop-off charge, Valet (and only at T2, T3, or T5). If you are at T5 and want the airport novelty, Pod Parking, slightly more expensive than Park & Ride but quicker to the door. Otherwise the bus from Park & Ride is fine.

Which terminal? Park & Ride runs at all four terminals, and since 23 June 2026 it is the only product that does: the T4 multi-storey closure took Terminal Parking and Meet & Greet down to T2, T3, and T5. Priority Park & Ride is currently T5 only because the T2/T3 site is closed for operational reasons. Valet has never operated at T4. Pod Parking is T5 only by design.

What is the budget? Cheapest: Park & Ride pre-booked, £11 to £15 a day depending on lead time. Mid: Priority Park & Ride at T5 from £47.90 a day, or Pod Parking at T5 at £59.60 a day. Highest: Meet & Greet from £143.40 a day pre-booked, or Valet a little above on similar dates.

Are you driving a non-compliant car? Heathrow sits inside the expanded ULEZ zone. A non-compliant vehicle pays £12.50 a day to drive to the airport even if it never enters central London. The charge applies on the day of arrival and the day of return separately; pay before midnight on the third day after each journey. Check your plate on the TfL site before you book any of the parking products above.

Picking up rather than parking? The Park & Ride 29-minute free window is the equivalent of the old forecourt grace period for collections. Drive into Park & Ride, the arriving passenger takes the free courtesy bus from the terminal to the car park, drive out within 29 minutes for no charge. For forecourt rules, see drop-off charges; for the pick-up zone detail, see passenger pick-up.