JFK vs LaGuardia vs Newark: the Numbers Invert Each Other

The cheapest of the three New York airports to reach by public transport is the most expensive one to park at. LaGuardia costs $3.00 to leave by bus and subway, because its Q70 link is free, and charges $75 to $89 a day at the terminal garages. Newark and JFK invert both halves of that.

Every figure below is published by the airports themselves and was checked in September 2026. Put side by side, the three of them disagree about almost everything except where the flights go, and the disagreements are what decide which one to book.

Getting into Manhattan, priced from the airports’ own pages

Rail access is where the three differ most, and each of them prices it its own way. JFK charges $8.75 for the AirTrain and $3.00 for the subway, so the published trip into the city is $11.75 a head, a figure the airport prints on the page a traveler reads at the gate.

Newark charges the same $8.75 for its own AirTrain and then the rail fare on top, published as about $17.25 to NY Penn Station or $11.75 as far as World Trade Center. LaGuardia has no AirTrain at all: its Q70 link is free and the subway is $3.00, which is the whole fare.

Published figure	LaGuardia	Newark Liberty	JFK
Cheapest published trip to Manhattan	$3.00	$11.75	$11.75
Airport rail link fare	Free, the Q70	$8.75	$8.75
Cheapest published day of parking	$40, prebooked only	$35	$55 long-term, $39 prebooked
Most expensive day at a terminal	$89	$70	$94
Security board ceiling	20 minutes	30 minutes	60 minutes
Longest published walk from security	9 to 11 minutes	7 to 10 minutes	10 to 14 minutes
Hotels listed by the airport	10	21	13
Free wait lots for a driver	1, off-airport, closes 23:59	1, on-airport	2, on-airport

The gap at the top of that table is the biggest single number in the comparison. Reaching Manhattan from LaGuardia costs a fifth of what it costs from either of the others, and it does so because one bus route is free rather than because the distance is shorter.

What LaGuardia does not have is a train of its own. Its published route is a bus to a subway station, which is a different proposition with luggage at 11 pm from an AirTrain platform inside the terminal, and the price difference is what a traveler is being paid to accept that.

Prefer to drive on your own schedule? You can rent a car for the trip instead of a transfer.

Parking inverts the ranking completely

LaGuardia publishes $75 a day at Terminal A, $80 at Terminal B and $89 at Terminal C, and its Economy lot has no drive-up rate at all: the cell reads “N/A”, so the cheap option exists only for a driver who booked at least 3 hours ahead at “as low as $40 per day”.

Its neighbour across the Hudson publishes $65 at Terminal A short-term, $70 at Terminals B and C, $60 in the P4 garage and $35 at the P6 economy lot, all available at the barrier. JFK publishes $55 a day at its Long-Term Parking Lot and between $74 and $94 at the terminal lots, with the Terminal 8 Red Lot cheapest and the Terminal 4 Blue Lot dearest.

So a driver arriving without a booking pays at least $75 at LaGuardia, $55 at JFK’s long-term lot and $35 at Newark. That $40 daily gap is the mirror image of the transit table, and it is the reason the answer to “which airport” changes completely depending on whether a car is involved, as the Newark rates set out in full.

The security board is not the same instrument

All three run the same live queue display and stop counting at different points: 20 minutes at LaGuardia, 30 at Newark and 60 at JFK. A 45-minute queue is a number at JFK and a ceiling message at the other two, which makes the boards look better the shorter their scale.

Comparing the three boards on a busy morning therefore tells you very little. What it does tell you is which airport will still be reporting a figure when the queue gets long, and that is JFK, whose ceiling is three times LaGuardia’s.

The walk after the checkpoint runs the other way, though the spread is small. Newark’s longest published walk is 7 to 10 minutes, LaGuardia’s is 9 to 11, and JFK’s is 10 to 14 at Terminal 4, so a JFK gate can be four minutes further from security than anything at Newark.

If somebody is collecting you

The three airports treat the person in the car very differently. JFK publishes two free wait lots, one at Lefferts Boulevard with a free 8-minute AirTrain ride to the terminals. Newark publishes one, beside the P4 garage, with more than 100 spaces and portable restrooms.

LaGuardia publishes one lot too, but puts it outside the airport on 94th Street and closes it at 23:59. A flight landing at 1 am there leaves the driver with no published free place to wait, while the same arrival at Newark or JFK does.

The hotel lists follow the same pattern of near-agreement with one outlier. The New Jersey airport names 21 hotels and sorts them into three pickup zones at its P3 station, JFK names 13 and LaGuardia 10, and not one of the three publishes a price, a distance or a shuttle frequency for any of them.

All three ban waiting at the curb in nearly identical words, and all three end that sentence with a tow at the owner’s expense. It is the one rule the three of them agree on completely.

Which one to book, by what you are doing

Travelling light and heading for Manhattan on public transport: LaGuardia, at $3.00 against $11.75. The saving is real and the trade is a bus rather than a train, which matters most with a large suitcase and least with hand luggage. For a party of four the same choice is $12.00 against $47.00, which is the point at which a taxi starts to look reasonable at any of the three.

Leaving a car for a week without booking parking in advance, the answer is Newark, where the P6 economy lot takes drive-ups at $35 a day against a LaGuardia terminal minimum of $75. Over seven days that is $245 against $525.

Connecting through, or wanting a queue figure that still means something when the airport is busy: JFK, whose board keeps counting to 60 minutes. And for a driver leaving a car for a fortnight with no need for a connection at all, none of the three: Stewart publishes $12 a day, which is $84 for a week against Newark’s $245.

• Manhattan by transit: $3.00 from LaGuardia, $11.75 from JFK, $11.75 to $17.25 from Newark.
• Drive-up parking: $35 a day at Newark’s P6, $55 at JFK’s long-term lot, and a $75 minimum at LaGuardia’s terminals.
• LaGuardia’s Economy lot has no drive-up rate published at all. It is prebook or nothing.
• Security boards stop at 20, 30 and 60 minutes, so the three figures are not comparable.
• Only LaGuardia’s free wait lot has a closing time, at 23:59, and only its lot is off-airport.
• Newark lists 21 hotels, JFK 13 and LaGuardia 10, and none of the three publishes a price.

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 choosing between the three airports

Six answers, each built from what the airports published in September 2026.

The airport that is cheapest to leave is the dearest to park at, and the one with the honest queue board is the furthest walk.

Related guides

The Newark lots at $35 to $70, the LaGuardia board that stops at 20 minutes and the AirTrain fare of $8.75 are covered separately.

• What LaGuardia’s security board hides
• What the Newark AirTrain fare covers
• The airports that serve Westchester