Cost of parking at Dublin Airport climbs dramatically

The cost of parking at Dublin Airport has climbed dramatically in recent weeks with price increases of 100 per cent and above reported by some passengers.

Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has said increased demand is behind at least some of the price hikes, adding that the current closure of a private parking facility close to the airport had exacerbated the problem.

“I was abroad for 10 nights from March 20th and paid €64 for parking in the Dublin Airport ‘red’ car park,” Lucy Power told The Irish Times .

Last week, she went to book another 10-day stint in the same car park for next October and was shocked by the scale of the price increase. She said the cost of 10 days in the airport’s ‘red’ car park from October 3rd, when booked this weekend, was €125 - a price described as a “special offer”.

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Norman Kelly, another user of the airport, was similarly dismayed by the scale of the increases.

Late last week, he booked what he described as his “customary week’s parking for next November” and noted that the cost had risen from €49 in 2021 to €104.

He also has parking booked for two weeks this summer. In March he paid €125 for his parking while the price on Saturday was put at €170.

A spokesman for DAA confirmed there had been increases of this scale but suggested the price differentials were due to “a dynamic pricing model which is influenced by factors such as demand [AND]time of year” as well as other factors.

The spokesman was asked to compare parking costs in DAA car parks over Easter 2019 and Easter 2022, as well as for a week in July 2019 and a week in July 2022, and a week in October 2019 compared with a week in October 2022. He said only one comparison was available.

“I do not have the comparative figures for April and July. However, the team were able to provide the comparative figures for October,” he said. “They show that the average price paid for 10 days’ parking in October 2019 was €75.”

The price currently on offer is €125.

“The price of parking at Dublin Airport fluctuates depending on several factors, notably the time of year and demand for parking,” the spokesman said. “This dynamic pricing model means that sometimes a customer can pay less or more than they may have done previously, which enables DAA to effectively manage demand for parking, ensuring that all those who need to park at Dublin Airport can do so.”

He said that with Dublin Airport getting busier “some passengers will be paying more for parking in the weeks and months ahead than they would have done over the past two years when the airport was significantly quieter and demand for parking was greatly reduced, which resulted in more discounted offers online”.

He also noted the privately run Quick Park car park at Dublin Airport – which would have offered in the region of 3,500 spaces or a fifth of all the parking spaces normally available at the airport - is currently closed and said that was “contributing to the squeeze on availability of parking spaces”.