Gatwick On-Airport Parking Products Compared: Long Stay, Mid Stay and Short Stay

If you are trying to see all the Gatwick parking products side by side before you book, the first thing to establish is which products actually exist and which of them are on-airport. This comparison is built only from London Gatwick's own published parking pages, so every statement below can be traced back to a source. Where the evidence is silent — most importantly on exact prices — this article says so and names the page you need to check yourself.

Which car parks exist at Gatwick?

London Gatwick's parking FAQ page names the following car parks and products: Long Stay, Mid Stay, Short Stay, Premium Short Stay and Robotic Parking. The Long Stay product is described for both the North Terminal and the South Terminal, and the Mid Stay product is likewise described separately for North and South. The evidence bundle does not list any other on-airport product names, so anything else you may see marketed as Gatwick parking sits outside this comparison.

The same FAQ page gives the first structural difference between the products: Mid Stay and Robotic Parking are pre-book only, while Short Stay and Long Stay car parks have payment machines at the exit barrier that accept card payments only. That single sentence already splits the range into two booking models, and it matters when you are comparing them side by side.

How do the products differ?

Distance and transfer to the terminal

The clearest distance evidence in the bundle concerns Mid Stay. The Mid Stay Parking page states that once you have parked, there will be signs directly to the North Terminal, and that it takes less than six minutes to walk to the terminal. That is a walking transfer, not a shuttle bus, for the North Terminal Mid Stay product.

For Long Stay, the Long Stay Parking page gives driving directions into the North Terminal Long Stay car park but does not state a walking time or a transfer time to the terminal. It also notes that there is no accurate postcode for the North Terminal Long Stay car park. The bundle therefore does not let us put a transfer time on Long Stay, and no transfer time at all is given for Short Stay, Premium Short Stay or Robotic Parking. If transfer time is the deciding factor for you, the individual parking page for each product is where you must check.

The bundle also does not state whether Long Stay uses a shuttle bus, nor how frequently any transfer runs. Any claim about shuttle frequency or journey time would be invented, so none is made here.

Vehicle size and bay dimensions

This is where the products differ in a way that is fully documented. On the FAQ page, Long Stay, Mid Stay and Short Stay car parks are described as having standard-size parking spaces of 2.4 metres wide and 4.8 metres long. Premium Short Stay car parks are the exception: they offer extra-wide bays for added convenience.

The Mid Stay page adds a North/South split. Mid Stay North is suitable for vehicles up to 2.4m high, with spaces of 2.5m x 5m. Mid Stay South is suitable for vehicles of any height, with spaces of 2.4m x 4.8m. So the two Mid Stay car parks are not interchangeable for a taller vehicle: the height restriction applies to North only, and the bay dimensions differ between the two.

The bundle does not state height or bay dimensions for Long Stay, Short Stay, Premium Short Stay or Robotic Parking beyond the general standard-size statement and the Premium Short Stay extra-wide note. Check each product page before assuming a tall vehicle will fit.

Booking and payment

Mid Stay and Robotic Parking are pre-book only. Short Stay and Long Stay have payment machines at the exit barrier accepting card payments only. That means if you have not pre-booked, your options are narrower than the full product range, and card is the only payment method the evidence records at those machines.

On length of stay, the FAQ page states that there is no minimum or maximum length of stay in the Short Stay car parks, and that if you are picking up or dropping off someone you can park in the North or South Terminal Long Stay car park for up to 2 hours for free. After 2 hours you will pay the Roll-up rate if you have not pre-booked, and the same page recommends pre-booking Long Stay as far in advance as possible for the best rates. The bundle does not give a figure for the Roll-up rate, and it does not state minimum or maximum stays for Long Stay, Mid Stay, Premium Short Stay or Robotic Parking.

Accessibility

The Mid Stay page states that all London Gatwick car park levels are fully accessible and compliant with the Equality Act 2010. It also states that Blue Badge bays are exclusively reserved for Blue Badge holders. The Long Stay page quantifies this: there are 32 Blue Badge bays in the Long Stay North Terminal car park and 95 spaces in the Long Stay South Terminal car park. The bundle does not give Blue Badge bay counts for Mid Stay, Short Stay, Premium Short Stay or Robotic Parking, so those numbers must be checked on the individual pages.

Security and facilities

Both the Long Stay and Mid Stay pages describe their car parks as well-lit, security fenced (Long Stay) or well-lit and regularly patrolled by London Gatwick security staff, and both state ParkMark Safer Parking approval. The Mid Stay page also states that the car park does not currently have electrical charging points. The bundle does not record whether Long Stay, Short Stay, Premium Short Stay or Robotic Parking have electrical charging points, so if you need charging, that is a point to verify per product.

Which is cheapest?

This is the question the evidence bundle cannot answer with a figure. No price, tariff, fee or rate is stated for any Gatwick parking product in the material available here. The FAQ page refers to a Roll-up rate for stays beyond the free 2-hour Long Stay window and recommends pre-booking for the best rates, but it does not publish the amount. The Long Stay and Mid Stay pages in the bundle contain no prices at all.

Because no figures are given, this comparison will not rank the products by cost and will not name a cheapest option. Anyone who tells you one Gatwick product is cheapest without quoting a dated price from Gatwick is working from something other than the evidence here. To compare prices properly, check the official London Gatwick parking pages for each product on the date you intend to book, since rates vary by date, duration and how far in advance you book.

The only cost-adjacent facts the bundle does support are: up to 2 hours free in the North or South Terminal Long Stay car park for pick-up and drop-off, a Roll-up rate applying after 2 hours if you have not pre-booked, and the general advice to pre-book Long Stay as far in advance as possible for the best rates. None of these is a price.

Side-by-side summary

What to check before you book

Three gaps in the evidence matter most for a real booking decision. First, price: no figure exists in this bundle, so the official Gatwick parking pages are the only place to get a dated rate for your dates. Second, transfer time: only Mid Stay North has a stated walking time here, so Long Stay, Short Stay, Premium Short Stay and Robotic Parking transfer arrangements must be checked individually. Third, vehicle fit: height and bay dimensions are only fully documented for Mid Stay North and Mid Stay South, so a tall or wide vehicle needs confirming per product.

If you want to see these products laid out against each other in more detail, the comparison section and the products section are the places to continue. For the underlying rules, the two pages cited throughout this article — the London Gatwick parking FAQs, the Long Stay Parking page and the Mid Stay Parking page — are the sources a reader should verify against, and they are the only sources used here.

Checked 2026-10-06. This source check uses Long Stay Parking and Mid Stay Parking and Parking FAQs. It is not a live availability check, booking or personal test.