I just love this story. It seems that the airport needs money. So naturally they go to parking to get it. According to the article they are going to raise parking fees, not only on parkers, but also on the “off airport” operators who provide parking for those who don’t want to pay on airport pricing.
This means most likely a substantial increase in those off airport fees. See the airport can’t compete. Their “long term”, read that far away, parking is losing money. Why should someone pay more to park there than they pay at off airport locations and be shuttled in? However a good way for the airport to compete is to simply raise the fee it charges the off airport types to bring their shuttle vans on the airport property. That way these operators will be forced to raise their prices just to stay in business, and the airport will potentially see a resulting increase in their long term operations.
Don’t you wish you could force your competitors to raise their prices so you could be more competitive?
I have always felt these airport charges were a rip off. If those off airport companies went away tomorrow, what would the airport do with all those cars?
JVH
One Response
Well John, this is a tough issue. The Airport has millions of dollars in debt service to cover for their parking structures. The off-airport parking lots only exist because the airport is there. The added traffic on airport commercial roads from the constant flow of off-airport parking shuttle vans takes a toll on traffic and roads. The off-airport lots have costs to deal with, but not nearly the size of the costs that airports have to bear. The parking space is a supply and demand item, particularly at an airport. Parking revenues are typically the single largest source of revenue at any airport of size. That is important to protect. The off-airport business is no different than any other business in that their costs to operate dictate the rate they need to charge the end user in order to remain solvent. Bottom line is that the off-aiport parking lots provide a needed asset (parking) that saves the airport from dedicating more land and debt to build more parking. But, the costs of having users of airport roads and infrastructure need to be covered and having these costs covered by the user is the only fair way of spreading the costs.