Five festive pricing tips your airport can’t afford to overlook

The festive season fundamentally reshapes demand across every airport. Passenger behaviour shifts, booking patterns become less predictable, and dwell times fluctuate in ways that don’t follow the usual trends. For airport operators, this seasonal complexity creates both significant challenges and untapped opportunities. 

The scale of the festive travel surge is substantial. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened nearly 39 million passengers between 19 December and 2 January in the 2024-25 period, marking the agency’s busiest end-of-year travel period on record. This represents a significant opportunity for airport parking revenue, with parking representing approximately 37% of all non-aeronautical revenue generated within North American airports in 2021, according to Airports Council International. 

While many airports rely on the same pricing structures year-round, the festive period demands a more sophisticated approach. The difference between flat pricing and dynamic, demand-responsive pricing can mean the difference between maximising your second-largest revenue stream and leaving substantial money on the table. 

Here are five practical ways to strengthen your parking revenue strategy during the festive period. 

1) Use real-time price adjustments based on booking volume

Booking behaviour becomes inconsistent in December, with some airports seeing uplifts of 20-35% in booking volume week-on-week. This kind of volatility makes static pricing ineffective at best and revenue-limiting at worst. Traditional approaches that rely on fixed rate cards can’t respond to the rapid demand fluctuations at this time of year. 

For the 2024 holiday season, the TSA expected a 6.2% increase over the previous year’s crowds, but this growth wasn’t evenly distributed across dates. The unpredictability of which dates will see the highest demand requires pricing systems that can adapt in real-time rather than relying on historical patterns alone. 

Research into pricing dynamics across industries shows the value of responsive pricing. When American Airlines first used revenue management and dynamic pricing systems in 1985, the result led to income increases of more than 14% and profit increases of 48% in the first year. 

Start by monitoring your booking pace daily rather than weekly. Set up alerts when booking numbers for specific dates exceeds historical norms by 15% or more; this is your signal to review pricing. Don’t wait for weekly revenue meetings to make adjustments. 

Create pricing rules that automatically increase rates when your booking velocity indicates strong demand. For example, if you’re seeing bookings for Christmas Eve at 130% of last year’s pace and you’re already at 60% capacity, your pricing should reflect that scarcity immediately, not three days later when you review your weekly reports. 

Conversely, establish triggers to soften pricing when bookings are tracking below expectations. If Boxing Day departures are only achieving 70% of the anticipated volume two weeks out, that’s when you need to become more competitive to drive volume before the window closes. 

The key is building responsiveness into your pricing workflow. This doesn’t require sophisticated software to start; even a spreadsheet tracking daily bookings against targets can tell you when to act. The critical shift is moving from scheduled pricing reviews to continuous monitoring and rapid response. 

2) Reduce your pricing review cycles

Many airports still operate on weekly or even monthly pricing cycles, adjusting rates based on broad seasonal patterns. However, during the festive period, this approach limits your revenue and profitability. 

Airports using shorter pricing cycles can unlock between 5-10% incremental revenue by reacting earlier to shifts in the booking curve. Arthur D. Little research indicates that yield management systems in combination with early reservation discounts can increase parking revenues by 6% to 8% yearly while optimising capacity utilisation. 

Reduce your pricing review frequency from weekly to every 2-3 days during the peak festive booking window (typically mid-November through early December for Christmas travel). This doesn’t mean changing prices constantly; rather, it means having the visibility to make informed decisions more frequently. 

Set up a simple daily dashboard that shows: 

• Bookings in the last 24 hours vs. the same day last year 

• Current occupancy vs. expected occupancy for each travel date 

• Competitive pricing positions (if you monitor competitors) 

Schedule brief pricing reviews every 48 hours, where you ask three questions: 

1. Are we tracking ahead or behind the forecast for each major travel date? 
2. Have any significant booking pattern changes emerged in the last two days? 
3. Do any prices need adjustment based on this data? 

This approach allows you to catch demand shifts early. If you notice on Monday that bookings for the 23rd December suddenly accelerated over the weekend, you can adjust Tuesday morning pricing rather than waiting until Friday’s weekly review. 

3) Identify and price your early-booking window separately

Festive travellers book earlier, and pre-book conversions rise by up to 40% in the run-up to Christmas. According to Google Flights data, US travellers who book domestic Christmas trips score the lowest prices 58 days before departure, with the low-price range between 36 and 72 days out. 

Recent surveys showed that 45% of American adults intended to travel for Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, representing nearly 117 million people. The majority of these travellers begin their planning well in advance, creating distinct early-booking windows that savvy airports can use. 

Map your historical booking curve for the past 2-3 years to identify exactly when festive bookings begin accelerating. Look for the point where booking volume starts climbing noticeably above baseline; this is typically 60-90 days before Christmas. 

Create a distinct pricing strategy for this early window. Rather than offering the same rates you’ll have closer to departure, hold firmer pricing when you first open bookings. Early bookers are planning because they value certainty, not necessarily because they’re hunting for the absolute lowest price. 

For example, if you typically open bookings 120 days out, consider pricing the 120-90-day window at 5-10% above your standard advance rates. These passengers are committing early to secure their preferred dates and product and less price-sensitive than the market booking 30 days out. 

Then create a clear pricing path for the remaining windows: 

• 90-60 days out: Standard advance purchase rates (your competitive positioning) 

• 60-30 days out: Slightly elevated rates as travel dates approach and urgency increases 

• 30-7 days out: Premium pricing reflecting late booking behaviour 

• 7 days and under: Maximum pricing for last-minute demand 

Track conversion rates by booking window. If your early window conversion drops below 60% of your 60-30-day window, you may be overpricing. If it’s above 90%, you’re likely leaving money on the table with passengers who would have paid more. 

4) Build length-of-stay pricing curves that reflect festive behaviour

Dwell times often increase by 12-18% during December as passengers extend their stays for family visits and holiday trips. Airport Council International’s 2019 reports indicated that car parking revenue accounts for approximately 20.1% of the total ancillary revenue of an airport, with smaller airports seeing parking provide 41% of landside revenues. 

This makes length-of-stay optimisation essential for maximising one of the airport’s most significant revenue streams. 

Analyse your parking stays from last December and identify the typical length-of-stay distribution. You’ll likely find a different pattern than your annual average; more 7-14 day stays, fewer 2-3 day stays. 

With this in mind, build a festive-specific length-of-stay pricing curve. Most airports use simple daily rates with linear or near-linear accumulation (day 1 = £X, day 2 = £2X, etc.). During the festive period, flatten this curve for longer stays. 

Here’s a practical approach: 

• Calculate your average revenue per space per day for December last year 

• Design your rates so that 7-10 day stays generate at or above this average 

• Offer minimal discounting beyond 7 days (perhaps 5-10% maximum) 

• Front-load pricing in the first 3-4 days, then flatten the curve 

For example, instead of charging £15/day consistently: 

• Days 1-2: £18/day (£36 total) 

• Days 3-4: £16/day (£32 for these two days, £68 total) 

• Days 5-7: £14/day (£42 for these three days, £110 total) 

• Days 8+: £13/day (ongoing) 

This structure generates £110 for a week vs. £105 with flat £15 daily rates, while still offering better value for longer stays (14 days = £201 vs. £210). 

The key takeaway? During the festive period, when longer stays naturally dominate, reduce your length-of-stay discounting. You don’t need to incentivise behaviour that’s already happening. Save aggressive length-of-stay discounts for shoulder periods when you’re trying to encourage longer stays to improve occupancy. 

5) Audit and align your channel pricing

Airports that combine pre-book, drive-up, and partner channels typically see a 15-25% uplift in total parking revenue. Revenues from airport parking typically represent between 5% and 15% of total airport revenue and up to 30% of non-aeronautical revenues. Channel leakage during the busy festive period can therefore have significant impacts on overall airport financial performance. 

When channels aren’t aligned, you create pricing inconsistencies that lead to revenue leakage and reduce overall yield. This problem intensifies during the festive season when passengers are comparison shopping more actively. 

Create a channel pricing matrix that you review every 2-3 days during the festive period. List all your channels (direct web, phone bookings, partner sites, aggregators, drive-up) and the current rates for key travel dates. 

Establish clear relationships between channels: 

• Drive-up should be your price ceiling (highest rates) 

• Direct online pre-book should sit 20-30% below drive-up 

• Partner channels should be 5-15% below direct (reflecting their commission but maintaining value) 

• Aggregators should be priced in line with partners or slightly higher 

During each review, check for inconsistencies. Common issues to watch: 

• Partner rates that undercut your direct online rates (channel cannibalisation) 

• Drive-up rates so high that they create abandonment (monitor your gate turn-away data) 

• Aggregator pricing that’s better than direct (margin leakage) 

If you find a channel out of alignment, correct it immediately. For example, if a partner site is showing £80 for Christmas week parking while your direct site shows £95, but you intended a 15% differential, adjust the partner rate to £81 (£95 minus 15%) for new bookings. 

Also audit your drive-up vs. pre-book relationship weekly. Calculate your drive-up conversion rate (cars that arrive vs. cars that turn away). If it drops below 85%, your drive-up premium may be too high. If it’s above 95%, you’re likely not capturing enough last-minute premium. 

The goal isn’t identical pricing across channels, it’s coherent pricing that maximises total revenue while serving each channel’s purpose effectively. 

Turn seasonal demand into stronger commercial outcomes

The festive season doesn’t have to be a guessing game. With the right approach to pricing, you can turn seasonal complexity into clearer revenue opportunities, stronger pricing decisions, and more predictable commercial outcomes. 

The airports that succeed during the festive period aren’t simply those with the most capacity or the best locations; they’re the ones with pricing strategies sophisticated enough to capture the full value of seasonal demand. They recognise that the festive period requires a fundamentally different approach to pricing, one that embraces volatility rather than trying to smooth it away with static rate cards. 

This means moving from reactive to proactive pricing, from gut instinct to data-driven decision-making, and from channel silos to unified commercial strategy. It means treating pricing as a strategic capability rather than an operational task, investing in the tools and platforms that enable dynamic, demand-responsive pricing at scale. 

The commercial opportunity is significant. Given that airport parking activities typically generate substantial operational margins and cash flow due to relatively low capital and operational expenditures, optimising pricing during the busiest travel period of the year can have an outsized impact on overall airport profitability. 

Get invaluable pricing expertise with our free guide 

Download our free guide: Why Your Pricing Strategy Is Costing You Revenue (and What to Do About It) and learn more about building a pricing strategy that works harder for your business. 

You’ll discover how to: 

• Identify hidden revenue gaps – Spot where static pricing is limiting growth and online conversion across all seasons, not just peak periods 

• Apply smarter pricing models – Use dynamic rules and segmentation to align price with demand throughout the booking curve 

• Build a scalable framework – Create a pricing structure that flexes with seasonality and passenger behaviour without requiring constant manual intervention 

• Capture quick wins – Implement simple changes that deliver measurable uplift in the short term while building toward longer-term transformation 

• Drive long-term growth – Turn pricing from an operational task into a strategic advantage that compounds over time 

The guide provides expert-led guidance on moving from reactive to revenue-driving pricing with practical frameworks you can apply right away. Whether you’re just beginning to explore dynamic pricing or looking to optimise an existing strategy, you’ll find actionable insights that can improve your commercial performance. 

Don’t let outdated pricing hold your revenue back.

Get your copy now and start maximising every parking opportunity, during the festive season and beyond.