By Car and Motorbike
How to get to Birmingham Airport by car and motorbike
You’ll find Birmingham Airport about 8 miles east of the city and right in the heart of the UK’s motorway network, making it one of the country’s most convenient air transport hubs. In addition to being well served by the road network, the airport links directly to Birmingham International Train Station, courtesy of a dedicated monorail, with a journey time of around one and a half minutes.
If you’re using Sat-Nav, the airport postcode is: B26 3QJ
Travelling by Car
The airport is the biggest in the area and is easy to get to at any time of the day. Congestion only tends to occur around the usual rush-hour times, in the morning, between 7.30 am and 9.00 am and 4.30 pm and 6.00 pm. If you’re driving to the airport around these hours, leave some extra time for traffic delays, particularly if you’re taking the M6 or the M42. These major routes can become slow going during the main rush hours, especially at the junction turn-offs.
- From the north-west (Stafford, Stoke, Manchester, Liverpool): Take the M6 and leave at Junction 4A, onto the M42, which is signposted for London and Solihull. Leave at Junction 6, which will take you onto the A45, and then follow the signs for the airport.
- From the north-east (Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Sheffield, Leeds): Leave the M42 at Junction 6, onto the A45, and follow the signs to the airport.
- From the east (Coventry, Northampton): Follow the M6 to the A45 and then follow the signs to the airport.
- From the south-east (Banbury, Oxford, Bicester, London): Follow the M40, before joining the M42 in Coventry. From there, follow the signs to the airport.
- From the south-west (Worcester, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bristol): Take the M5 to the M42 in Coventry, before following the signs to the airport.
bp pulse off-site EV charging
Birmingham Airport is approximately an 8-minute drive away from the UK’s largest public electric vehicle (EV) charging hub, situated on the nearby NEC campus. The bp pulse Gigahub™ has 30 ultra-fast 150kW and 150 fast 7kW charging points, enabling 180 EVs to charge simultaneously. Visit the bp pulse website to find out more about the charging hub, and get directions.
Useful Links
The AA Route Planner can be used to plan specific directions to the airport, and is especially useful if you want to avoid motorway routes.
Live traffic information from Highways England will keep you updated on the status of the traffic and to help you dodge any delays.
Car Hire
There are 7 international car hire firms based at Birmingham Airport for collecting or returning hire cars.
For more information and to book your hire car, click here
Parking
Birmingham Airport has several on and off-site cark parks, motorbike parking, and disabled spaces, all within easy access of the terminal building. Find out more.
As a major international airport, our car parks are always busy and the best way to guarantee your parking space is to pre-book direct with us online.
Red routes operate around the airport site to maintain the flow of traffic and the safety of our passengers, visitors, and staff. On Red Routes, drivers are not permitted to stop, unload, or park. These routes are clearly marked with double red line road markings and highlighted with signs. To prevent congestion and to keep our customers safe, vehicle monitoring and enforcement operations are in place, with significant fines for those who do not observe the Red Route policies.
Already pre-booked your parking?
On arrival
To ensure your holiday starts smoothly, we’ve installed number plate recognition systems in most of our car parks. If you’ve pre-booked a space with us, your ticket will be automatically issued to you at the entry barrier, without you even having to press a button!
If for some reason this doesn’t happen, just push the help button and a member of our customer services team will assist you.
If you haven’t pre-booked your space you will need to press the button for a ticket at the entry barrier, collect your ticket, and then find a space to park. Non-booked spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
Leaving the car park
Pre-booking your space with us even helps to get you on your way home that bit quicker! If you’ve pre-booked online, you can validate your ticket at one of the payment machines, which means when you get to the exit barrier it will automatically lift without the need for inserting your ticket. That means you can get on with your journey with no delays. You can also pay by debit or credit card at the payment machines, or at the exit barrier if you prefer.
If you pay at the exit barrier then it will raise once your payment has been validated, and you can be on your way. If for some reason the barrier doesn't raise, please press the assistance button and our Control Team will be only too happy to help.
If you didn’t pre-book your space with us, you’ll need to take the ticket you collected at the entry barrier to one of our payment machines and insert your ticket to pay for your parking stay. Don’t worry if you’re carrying pocketfuls of pesos or don’t have any money with you: our Payment machines accept credit or debit cards, as well as notes and coins. When you get to the exit barrier, insert your ticket and the barrier will rise allowing you to leave.
Your booking allows you to enter and exit the car park once only.