Guides · Timing
How much time the shuttle actually takes
The ride is the short part. The waiting, the loading and the walk are where the time goes.
Every lot near this airport advertises a ride time. Every one of them is honest, and every one of them is the smallest part of the number you need.
What actually happens
You park and unload. Two to four minutes with a couple of cases, longer with children or a roof box.
You wait. Five to ten minutes at ordinary hours on the busier lots, and up to twenty late at night or on the long stay lot at a quiet time. This is the number nobody publishes.
You ride. Three to fourteen minutes depending on the lot. This is the number everybody publishes.
You unload and walk in. Two to five minutes.
So a lot advertising an eight minute shuttle is realistically a twenty minute lot, door to terminal door, at a normal hour. The covered deck at four to six minutes is realistically twelve to fifteen.
What to allow, by lot
- Covered deck or valet
- 15 minutes from parking to standing in the terminal
- Fenced surface lot
- 20 minutes
- Long stay surface lot
- 25 minutes, and 30 late at night
- Any lot, first week of January or the Wednesday before Thanksgiving
- Add 10 minutes to all of the above
Then add whatever you were going to allow for security and the walk to the gate, which is a separate problem and not one a parking desk should pretend to solve for you.
The return leg
Easier, and worth knowing anyway.
Shuttles run less often late at night, and on the long stay lot the gap between vehicles after eleven can reach twenty five minutes. If your return lands after ten, the deck is worth considering purely because the ride is short and the frequency is better.
Keep the lot's own number in your phone. Most operators will send a vehicle on request out of hours, and standing at a shelter hoping is a poor alternative to asking.
What the desk does about it
Every lot card and rate table on this site prints the shuttle range next to the price rather than three clicks away, because it is half the decision.
When your dates are tight, the desk will say so and suggest the deck. When they are not, it will not upsell you into it.