A massive 44% of British holidaymakers (almost 11 million) who drive to the airport are not pre-booking their airport parking, and missing out on total savings of £397 million every year, independent research commissioned by HolidayExtras.com reveals.

As the peak summer holiday season approaches, parking costs at the airport will be sky high for holidaymakers who just turn up and pay on the day. And they could be saving an average of £37 per trip by pre-booking.

Despite being able to save up to 60% on gate rates by booking in advance, three in ten of those surveyed believe that the potential savings are not worthwhile (29.4%); and 35% of drivers say they can’t be bothered to pre-book, are too busy or that it’s too much hassle.

Matthew Pack, CEO of HolidayExtras.com, said: “These are quite shocking survey results, and highlight the fact that we are not communicating the benefits of pre-booking clearly enough to travellers in the UK. It’s so easy to save. You don’t have to book months ahead, booking the day before your flight, or even on the way to the airport will save you some cash.

“And the average online booking with HolidayExtras.com takes less than three minutes. We are totally focused on making the experience hassle-free for our customers. Pre-booking could be the easiest and most cost-effective few minutes they spend on holiday planning.”

However, it was discovered that these drivers will spend hours trying to get the best deal on the holiday itself - 22% devote up to half a day; 28.1% will take a week or more. Of the 35-44 age group, 43% are willing to trawl holiday prices for three days or more to get a good deal.

Almost a third of drivers (28.7%) were not aware that they could pre-book their airport parking, with this figure rising to 38% of the women questioned.
Half of our dozy parkers (49.2%) say they would consider pre-booking if they could save 20% or more on the gate rate; and nearly a fifth (19.6%) would do so to take advantage of the easy access and security offered by long term car parks.