Travellers save up to two hours’ journey time by using car parks at airports, a new survey has found.
Research revealed by looking4parking.com, which recently launched an agents’ section to its website, found that 66% of airport parking users save an hour’s journey time, while 32% claim to have saved two hours using a meet and greet service.
The data matched further analysis which found that 26% of the 1,000 consumers polled used airport parking for convenience and was particularly popular for the leisure market, which made up 65% of responses. However, only 4% of respondents booked with a company as a regular customer and 20% said they used airport parking because of price, suggesting consumers shop around for the best rate.
“We knew that there was a time-saving involved with Meet and Greet parking when compared with other options, but it was surprising to learn that the majority of customers saved at least an hour by using this service. I think this will give us additional confidence when selling this type of product, and we will look to make reference to the time saving in our literature and marketing,” Martin Mansell, managing director of looking4parking.com told Travel Daily UK.
In addition the awareness of Park Mark, the safety accreditation scheme, was high amongst respondents with 94% of consumers stating it had a level of importance when booking airport parking. “Within the industry Park and Mark accreditation is a known and recognised symbol of quality but out there in the wider world its significance was thought to be less well known. Not so it seems and that’s excellent news as we try to promote our car parks that carry this accreditation,” added Mansell.
Further data showed those who book the product are likely to be families (31% in 40-49 category) or in the 50-59 age group (31%), against 9% of those under 30s. Looking4parking provides airport parking and meet and greet services at Birmingham, Heathrow, Luton, East Midlands and Southampton airports, as well as Southampton’s cruise port.