At three of the four airports around New York, the cheapest published parking rate cannot be paid at the barrier. LaGuardia prints “N/A” in the drive-up column of its Economy lot, JFK sells its Federal Circle lot by reservation only, and Westchester County requires its long-stay rate to be booked online. Only Newark lets a driver turn up and pay its lowest price.
That single structural fact matters more than any individual rate. A traveler who compares headline prices is comparing numbers that three of the four airports will not charge to somebody who simply arrives.
Every named lot, with both prices
All four airports publish their rates in two columns, headed “Drive-Up Rate” and “Prebook Rate (Book At Least 3 Hours in Advance)” at the three Port Authority sites, and the difference between those columns runs from $5 to $25 a day. The table below is those columns, checked in September 2026 against each airport’s own page.
| Airport and lot | Drive-up, 24 hours | Prebooked |
|---|---|---|
| JFK, Long-Term Parking Lot | $55 | as low as $39 |
| JFK, Terminal 8 Red Lot | $74 | as low as $62 |
| JFK, Terminal 5 Yellow Lot | $89 | as low as $74 |
| JFK, Terminal 4 Blue Lot | $94 | as low as $80 |
| JFK, Federal Circle Station Lot | N/A, reservation only | as low as $55 |
| LaGuardia, Terminal A | $75 | as low as $50 |
| LaGuardia, Terminal B | $80 | as low as $55 |
| LaGuardia, Terminal C | $89 | as low as $60 |
| LaGuardia, Prepaid Economy | N/A | as low as $40 |
| Newark, Short-term A | $65 | as low as $50 |
| Newark, Short-term B and C | $70 | as low as $50 |
| Newark, P4 Daily | $60 | as low as $40 |
| Newark, P6 Economy | $35 | as low as $30 |
| Westchester County, main garage | $36.47 | same rate, $5 reservation |
| Westchester County, long term over 72 hours | $20.88, online booking required | $20.88 |
Read down the drive-up column and the range is $20.88 to $94, a spread of more than four to one for the same act of leaving a car for a day. Read the prebook column and it narrows to $30 against $80, because the gap is widest where the walk-up prices are highest.
The cheapest number in the whole table belongs to the smallest airport. Westchester County publishes $20.88 a day for stays over 72 hours, and its operator states the condition plainly: the long term lot has to be booked online for a driver to get that lower rate.
The gap between neighbouring terminals
Two of the airports charge different prices for adjacent buildings and explain the difference nowhere. At JFK the Terminal 8 Red Lot is $74 and the Terminal 4 Blue Lot is $94, a $20 daily gap. At LaGuardia, Terminal A is $75 and Terminal C is $89, a $14 gap, with the half-hour rate rising from $5 to $6 as well.
Newark’s spread is smaller and runs the other way round: $65 at Terminal A against $70 at Terminals B and C, so $5 separates its terminal lots. Its real gap is between the terminals and the economy lot, at $35 against $70.
For a traveler with a choice of terminal, which is rarer than it sounds, those differences are worth a week’s coffee. For everybody else they are a reason to look at the airport’s cheap lot rather than its convenient one, which is set out for Newark in its own rate guide.
Two lots that take no drive-ups at all
LaGuardia’s Prepaid Economy lot prints “N/A” where the drive-up rate should be. The lot exists, it is the airport’s cheapest at “as low as $40 per day”, and a driver who arrives without a booking cannot use it, which makes the effective floor at LaGuardia $75 at Terminal A.
JFK’s Federal Circle Station Lot does the same and adds conditions: available by reservation only and subject to availability, with reservations at least 3 hours in advance, no ADA reduction applied, and, in its own words, an “uncovered path to AirTrain”. That last clause is unusually candid for an airport page.
So the practical floor for an unplanned arrival is $35 at Newark, $55 at JFK, $75 at LaGuardia and $36.47 at Westchester County, where the $20.88 rate also needs the online booking. Three of those four numbers are not the ones the airports advertise.
What else is attached to the price
Height limits decide some of it. JFK publishes 11’6″ at the Long-Term lot, 8’2″ on level A of the Terminal 8 Red Lot and 6’4″ at the Terminal 4 Blue Lot, so a van that fits the cheap lot will not fit the expensive one, and the airport prints the figures in the same table as the rates.
Payment method decides another part. Westchester County’s operator states that “all payments must be made through debit or credit cards. No cash accepted”, and Stewart’s list of accepted cards contains no cash either, so the era of paying a parking attendant in notes has ended without any of them announcing it.
And accessibility is priced by table rather than by reduction at two of them: LaGuardia and Newark both publish a 24-hour maximum of $35 for travelers with restricted mobility, which at LaGuardia is $40 below the cheapest lot a driver can actually use on arrival.
A week, and where the order changes
Multiply the drive-up rates by seven and the ranking is stark: $146.16 at Westchester County’s long-term rate, $245 at Newark’s P6, $385 at JFK’s Long-Term lot and $525 at LaGuardia’s cheapest available terminal lot.
Prebooking reorders nothing but compresses everything: $210 at Newark’s P6, $273 at JFK’s long-term lot, $280 at LaGuardia’s Economy lot and $350 at LaGuardia’s Terminal A, where the prebook rate is $50. The gap between the best and worst options falls from $379 to $70 once the booking is made three hours ahead.
Two details change those totals in opposite directions. The Port Authority airports charge the additional half hour only past three hours, so a short stay stays cheap at any of them, while Westchester County starts its calendar day the moment the ticket is pulled rather than at midnight, which quietly costs a second day for an overnight return.
That compression is the argument for booking rather than any single rate. It is worth more than choosing the right airport, and considerably more than choosing the right terminal, which is the opposite of how most of these decisions get made, and it sits alongside the wider comparison of the three big airports.
- Drive-up rates run from $20.88 at Westchester County to $94 at JFK’s Terminal 4 Blue Lot.
- LaGuardia’s Economy lot and JFK’s Federal Circle lot publish no drive-up rate at all.
- The floor for an unplanned arrival is $35 at Newark, $55 at JFK and $75 at LaGuardia.
- Booking 3 hours ahead cuts a week from $525 to $280 at LaGuardia and from $245 to $210 at Newark.
- JFK prints height limits beside the rates: 11’6″ at the long-term lot, 6’4″ at Terminal 4.
- LaGuardia and Newark both cap accessible parking at $35 for 24 hours.
Editorial note: prices, schedules, and policies on this page were checked against the official sources named in the text in September 2026. Treat every figure here as a reference point rather than a quote: operators change fares and hours without notice, and many vary by season, by event and by demand. Confirm the current price with the operator before you travel. Westchester Ride does not sell tickets or parking and does not accept payment to rank any operator.
Common questions about parking rates at New York airports
Six answers, each taken from what the airports and their operators published in September 2026.
Westchester County on published rates, at $20.88 a day for stays over 72 hours, though its operator requires that booking online. Among the big three, Newark’s P6 economy lot is cheapest at $35 a day drive-up.
At Newark, yes. LaGuardia prints N/A in the drive-up column of its Economy lot, JFK sells Federal Circle by reservation only, and Westchester County requires online booking for its long-stay rate, so three of the four cheapest prices need planning.
On drive-up rates multiplied by seven: $146.16 at Westchester County’s long-term rate, $245 at Newark’s P6 economy lot, $385 at JFK’s Long-Term Parking Lot and $525 at LaGuardia’s Terminal A, which is its cheapest lot for a driver arriving without a booking.
It compresses the difference between airports to almost nothing. A week falls from $525 to $280 at LaGuardia and from $245 to $210 at Newark, so the gap between the best and worst options drops from $379 to $70.
The airport does not say. It publishes $74 at the Terminal 8 Red Lot and $94 at the Terminal 4 Blue Lot, a $20 daily gap between adjacent buildings, and adds only that Terminal 4 has reduced availability during construction.
LaGuardia and Newark both publish a 24-hour maximum of $35 for travelers with restricted mobility. JFK notes that no ADA reduction applies at its Federal Circle lot, and Stewart applies its long-term rate of $12 and $6.
Three of the four cheapest rates in the region are only available to a driver who decided three hours earlier.
Related guides
The Newark lots at $35 to $70, the wider comparison of the three big airports and Stewart at $12 a day are covered separately.
