DFW Airport parking rates went up for every product on Oct. 1, with a full day in a terminal garage now $40 for drivers who pay by credit card, up from $32. The new prices are written into the airport’s fiscal 2027 schedule of charges and budget, which also show a $3 daily discount for drivers who pay with a TollTag.
The same budget explains why parking matters so much to the airport, which is planning for record passenger traffic and a much bigger Terminal F.
The new DFW Airport parking rates
The airport’s budget describes the changes plainly: an $8 increase for Terminal parking, $4 for Express, $2 for Remote and $6 for pass-throughs, effective Oct. 1, 2026. The schedule of charges that went to the DFW board on Aug. 6 shows the daily rates for stays of six to 24 hours.
- Terminal garages: $40 by credit card, up from $32. With a TollTag, $37.
- Express Covered: $25 by credit card, up from $21. With a TollTag, $23.
- Express Uncovered: $22 by credit card, up from $18. With a TollTag, $20.
- Remote: $16 by credit card, up from $14. With a TollTag, $14.
Never Late News calculated the percentage changes for credit card customers: 25% for Terminal, about 19% for Express Covered, about 22% for Express Uncovered and about 14% for Remote. A TollTag in the Remote lots keeps the daily price where the card price was last year.
Short DFW Airport parking stops changed too. The budget lists increases of $1 for stays of eight to 30 minutes, $2 for 30 minutes to an hour, $4 for one to two hours, $3 for two to four hours and $6 for four to six hours. Its rate summary puts Terminal intraday parking at $13 to $18 by card for two to six hours, drop-off at $1 with a TollTag or $3 by card for eight to 30 minutes, and a pass-through of up to eight minutes at $12 with a TollTag or $15 by card. The summary lists rideshare company trips at $6 or $8 for up to 30 minutes and DFW branded valet at $55.
What a weekend trip costs now
For a simple comparison, Never Late News priced DFW Airport parking for a three-day trip, using each product’s daily rate, assuming each 24-hour period bills at the daily maximum. Actual charges depend on entry and exit times.
- Terminal garage by card: $120, up from $96.
- Express Covered by card: $75, up from $63.
- Remote by card: $48, up from $42.
- Remote with a TollTag: $42.
On that trip, a driver who switches from a terminal garage to Remote with a TollTag pays $78 less. Remote lots sit farther from the terminals, so the savings come with a longer trip to the gate.
Why DFW Airport parking matters to the budget
Parking is the airport’s largest source of money outside the airlines. The budget sets parking revenue at $276.7 million for fiscal 2027, up $1.6 million, or 0.6%, from the fiscal 2026 outlook, and forecasts 1.6% growth in local origin and destination passengers.
Total non-airline revenue is budgeted at a record $646.6 million. By Never Late News math, parking supplies about 43% of it.
The supply is shifting, too. DFW runs five terminal garages, one Express lot and two Remote lots. One section of the Terminal C garage is closed for renovation and is scheduled to reopen in December 2026. The other two Terminal C sections are scheduled to close for renovation in May and July of 2027. Remote South is set to add 1,500 spaces late in the fiscal year.
The bigger budget behind the increase
The DFW board approved the fiscal 2027 budget on Aug. 6, according to an Aug. 24 memo to the Dallas City Council’s Finance Committee. Under the airport’s agreement with its two owner cities, Dallas and Fort Worth must both approve the budget by Sept. 30. The memo said the Dallas council would consider it Sept. 9.
- Expenditure budget: $1.622 billion, up $189.4 million, or 13.2%, from the fiscal 2026 outlook. That includes $820.6 million in operating expenses and $801.8 million in debt service and coverage.
- Board contingency: $10 million.
- Debt: the airport plans to issue $2.0 billion in new debt in January 2027, mainly for the central terminal area expansion and Terminal F.
- Passengers: 87.7 million budgeted, a 2.6% increase that would be a record.
Terminal F explains much of the debt. The budget says DFW and the airlines redesigned the project in fiscal 2026 to add a headhouse, a parking garage, new roadways, a customs facility and more gates, for 31 in all. That raised the Terminal F budget from $1.6 billion to $4.0 billion before inflation. The first phase is scheduled to open in the third quarter of fiscal 2027, with the final phase expected in 2030. The new Terminal A pier, with five more gates, is expected in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.
Airlines pay more too
The DFW Airport parking increase is not the only new price. Airline costs are budgeted at $835.7 million, up $93.8 million, or 12.6%. The cost per enplaned passenger, an industry measure of what airlines pay the airport for each boarding passenger, rises $1.83, or 10.9%, to $18.69. The budget says that is still below the $20.26 in the airport’s financial plan.
The schedule of charges sets the signatory airline landing fee at $4.40 per 1,000 pounds for Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027. That compares with $3.54 for October 2025 through March 2026 and $2.78 for April through September 2026. The signatory terminal rental rate rises to $459.56 per square foot from $419.20.
Getting to the airport without a car is another option. Our earlier reports covered Trinity Metro’s FY2027 budget and TEXRail, DART’s $1.4 billion budget and toll revenue on the NTTA system, which matters if you drive in with a TollTag.
How Never Late News reported this
The rates and budget figures come from two public records, both checked line by line against this story.
- City of Dallas memo, DFW International Airport Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Overview (Aug. 24, 2026), with the airport’s attached fiscal 2027 budget: parking rate summary effective Oct. 1, 2026, rate increases, parking revenue, garage changes, expenditure totals, debt plans, Terminal F and airline costs.
- DFW Airport Board agenda, Aug. 6, 2026: item F-6, the fiscal 2027 schedule of charges with its quick reference guide showing old and new parking, landing fee and terminal rental rates.
The percentage changes, the three-day trip prices and parking’s share of non-airline revenue are Never Late News calculations from those records. The board action’s background text says the airline rates take effect “October 1, 2027,” while its quick reference guide lists them for Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027; we used the guide’s dates. We did not locate a record of the Dallas and Fort Worth council votes. No interviews were conducted for this report. To report an error, email editor@neverlatenews.com.