Short answer
For a quick drop-off, park at the terminal. For anything longer, park with us. Dayton International’s Short-Term lot is a three-minute walk from check-in and starts at $16 a day. Park-N-Go is $2 an hour capped at $9.99 a day — $11.39 all in — with a free four-minute door-to-door shuttle that runs 24 hours.
What a two-day trip actually costs
- Airport Short-Term — $32.99
- Airport Garage — $46.99
- Airport Long-Term — $28.99
- Airport Economy — $18.99, but the shuttle stops at midnight
- Park-N-Go — $22.78, shuttle runs around the clock
Rates last verified August 2026.
What counts as short-term parking at Dayton airport?
Two different things go by that name, and mixing them up is what makes people overpay.
Short-Term is the name of one specific lot at Dayton International — the one closest to the doors, about a three-minute walk from check-in. It is priced for convenience, from $16 a day.
A short trip is something else. Most people searching for short-term airport parking are going away for two or three days, not two or three hours. You can leave a car in any lot at DAY for as long as you like. Nothing forces a short trip into the Short-Term lot, and on a two-day trip that lot costs $14 more than parking with us.
If you want the general definition rather than the Dayton specifics, we wrote that up separately: short-term vs. long-term airport parking.
Dayton airport short-term parking rates, August 2026
Every airport lot adds a one-time $0.99 transaction fee, which is included in the trip totals below. Our figure is the all-in rate — tax included, no booking fee.
| Where you park | Daily rate | 2-day trip | 3-day trip | Getting to the terminal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airport Short-Term | from $16 | $32.99 | $48.99 | 3-minute walk |
| Airport Garage | $23 | $46.99 | $69.99 | 5-minute walk |
| Airport Long-Term | $14 | $28.99 | $42.99 | 10–15 minute walk |
| Airport Economy | $9 | $18.99 | $27.99 | 10–15 minute shuttle, 4:30am–midnight |
| Park-N-Go | $9.99 ($11.39 all in) | $22.78 | $34.17 | free 4-minute door-to-door shuttle, 24 hours |
When the terminal lot is the right call
We are not going to pretend otherwise: if you are dropping someone at the kerb or collecting an arrival and expect to be there minutes rather than hours, park in the airport’s Short-Term lot. Three minutes on foot beats any shuttle, ours included. That is what the lot is for.
Past an hour or so, the sums change. Our economy rate is $2 an hour, capped at $9.99 a day — a three-hour stay is $6.84 all in, tax and service fee included. The airport publishes its Short-Term lot at $16 a day.
When we cost less
The moment your trip runs overnight, the arithmetic turns. A two-day trip in the Short-Term lot is $32.99. The same two days with us is $22.78 — about $10 saved, and you are not carrying your own bags across a parking lot.
Three days: $48.99 against $34.17. Four days: $64.99 against $45.56. The gap widens every night you are away, because the Short-Term lot is priced for people who are not staying.
Past a week, the daily rate matters more than anything else on this page. We keep those figures separately: Dayton airport long-term parking rates.
The part nobody mentions until it matters
The airport’s Economy lot is the cheapest number on the board at $9 a day, and on price alone it beats us by about $2.40 a day. We would rather you knew that from us than found it out afterwards.
Here is the catch. The DAYrider shuttle that serves Economy runs from 4:30 a.m. until midnight or the last arriving flight. If your flight leaves at 6 a.m. you are fine. If it leaves at 5:40 a.m., or you land at 12:20 a.m. on a delayed inbound, you are standing in a surface lot working out how far the terminal is.
Our shuttle runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it comes to your car rather than to a stop. On an early departure or a late return, that is the whole difference.
What you get with us
- $2 an hour, capped at $9.99 a day — $11.39 all in for a full day, $6.84 for three hours. No booking fee, free cancellation.
- A four-minute shuttle that meets you at your car and carries your bags.
- Open 24/7, including the hours the airport’s economy shuttle does not run.
- Fenced, lit and camera-monitored with staff on site.
- Full-service valet at $12.99 a day if you would rather hand over the keys. DAY’s own valet closed in March 2020 and has not reopened, so this is the only valet at the airport.
We are at 1140 W National Rd, Vandalia, between Airport Toyota and Beau Townsend — directly across from the terminal. Search the business name in your GPS, not “Dayton Airport”, which routes you into the garage. Turn-by-turn directions from every direction.
Common questions
Is there hourly parking at Dayton airport?
With us, yes. Economy self-park is $2 an hour, capped at $9.99 a day — three hours is $6.84 all in. The airport publishes daily rates for its own lots, with the Short-Term lot from $16 a day.
How short is too short for off-airport parking?
About an hour. Below that, the three-minute walk from the terminal lot is worth it for a drop-off. Above it, our hourly rate is the cheaper option.
Do I have to reserve?
No. You can drive up. Reserving holds the rate and guarantees a space, and cancellation is free, so there is little reason not to.
What if my flight is delayed and I come back late?
We are open around the clock, so there is no closing time to miss. You pay for the days you use.
Are the cheap listings I see online real?
Be careful with those. Several booking sites still advertise Dayton parking at under $5 a day at addresses that closed years ago. We drove out and photographed two of them.
Reserve short-term parking at Park-N-Go, or see how we compare across every trip length on our Park-N-Go vs. Dayton Airport parking page.