As 2012 draws to a close, Essential Travel have got stuck into their valued customer feedback to find the best performing airport car parks. Our customers are given a chance to score car parks on different aspects of their experience; service, interactions with staff, and transfers to name just a few. This is so that both us at Essential Travel and customers can evaluate if the car parks are giving the best value. Here are some of the best performers from around the UK...
Top 5 Individual Car Parks
| Place | Car Park | Customer Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Exeter Main Yard Meet and Greet | 99% |
| 2nd | Stansted Easy Parking Meet and Greet | 98.15% |
| 3rd | Liverpool Sky Park Outdoor | 97.82% |
| 4th | Birmingham Meteor Meet and Greet | 97.75% |
| 5th | Newcastle Park and Fly | 97.68% |
Congratulations to Exeter Main Yard who scored a near-perfect 99% from customer feedback in 2012. Though Exeter is a smaller airport, it does offer scheduled and charter flights to mainland Europe and destinations around the UK. The number two spot was occupied by another meet and greet service, this time at Stansted. A great performance from Sky Park at Liverpool meant their park and ride outdoor parking came a well deserved third. Meteor at Birmingham finished very closely behind in 4th, while another park and ride car park, Newcastle’s Park and Fly, secured a great finish and had the most reviews for a car park from the top 5!
Best Rated Airport for Parking
| Place | Airport | Average Customer Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Newcastle | 95.53% |
| 2nd | Bristol | 93.49% |
| 3rd | Birmingham | 93.15% |
| 4th | Stansted | 93.02% |
| 5th | Edinburgh | 92.45% |
| 6th | Leeds Bradford | 92.39% |
| 7th | Liverpool | 92.07% |
| 8th | Luton | 91.87% |
| 9th | Gatwick | 91.57% |
| 10th | Dover Port | 90.62% |
Car parks at Newcastle were the best overall performers in 2012 with the highest average satisfaction rating. In fact, all of their car parks scored at least 92% but Park and Fly and Newcastle Airparks both averaged over 97% - incredible scores for two park and ride products. Bristol, Birmingham and Stansted all fought a close-run battle to reach the top 5, and they were joined by Edinburgh by the narrowest of wins over Leeds Bradford. Unfortunately, Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester, who all offer a large range of parking services, couldn’t perform as well as the mid-sized airports, despite having some very high-scoring individual car parks.
Best Performing Airport Parking Brands
Lastly, it’s time to take a closer look at the brands. Though most car parks are independent or run by the airport themselves, some are branded and can be found at multiple airports across the UK. This should help identify which brand is really on top of its game. And from the best performers...
| Place | Parking Brand | Average Customer Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | APH | 94.41% |
| 2nd | Aardvark | 94.34% |
| 3rd | Airparks | 93.32% |
| 4th | Park and Fly | 92.60% |
| 5th | Meteor | 91.67% |
| 6th | Drive Fly | 90.02% |
| 7th | Stress Free | 88.01% |
...the winner is APH! With over 30 years’ experience in airport parking, they win first place by a very narrow margin. Their services, offered at Birmingham, Gatwick and Manchester, are both popular and well scored by Essential Travel’s customers. Aardvark, which is in fact owned by Meteor, offer their meet and greet services at Birmingham, Stansted and Gatwick - all of which scored highly. Airparks, Park & Fly and Meteor all made the top 5 with good satisfaction ratings.