Airport battles parking squeeze

And Thrifty Airport Parking knows it.

Thrifty in May unveiled a renovation and expansion project that added 50 parking spaces pushing the total to 225. Since then, the lot has averaged 180 cars a day, according to company officials.

Increased parking demand on airport property parallels Thrifty’s experiences. Long-term parking is averaging nearly 75 percent capacity daily, leading airport officials to look down the road for new parking options.

Todd Parnell, vice chairman of the Airport Board, said he noticed the issue earlier this year.

“As the traffic has taken off, and we entered the busy summer months, it became apparent we were going to outgrow what we had,” he said.

The airport board is designing a new lot south of the existing lots, which would add 125 to 145 new spaces, increasing on-site long-term parking by about 15 percent.

Carriers Allegiant Air and Delta added new flights in April, June and July, and the number of passengers is up 25 percent with 493,513 through the first seven months of the year.

If growth holds at the current rate, last year’s record of 722,000 passengers through the airport would be broken this year – before November. Allegiant Air begins service to Orlando in October.

“That’s certainly not going to help the situation,” said Director of Aviation Gary Cyr.

“(Parking) is going to be a continuing growing problem at this point.”

Cyr said other services such as Thrifty are necessary.

“(Thrifty) has been an asset to the airport because without the additional parking they have you can see where we’d be here. But if we’re being impacted by (space shortages), even with several other options available, you can see we’re moving quite a few people through here.”

Brian Shepard, manager of the Thrifty lot, said he expects activity to increase as word gets out about the additional parking stalls.

“I would say it hasn’t really surged as much as we want it to yet, but in the last couple of weeks we’ve been advertising, and it’s getting quite a bit busier,” Shepard said.

“The morning shuttle buses are running a lot more.”

Renovations and expansion began on the off-site parking facility in December, after the business was purchased by Kansas City franchisee Thrifty Rent-A-Car.

Spokeswoman Amy Munsterman said the changes to the facility were based on previous experience.

“When we first went in, we said, ‘What are we going to do?’” she said. “Eventually we decided that we know what works in Kansas City for us, so we took those same ideas and applied them to Springfield.”

She declined to disclose how much was spent on the renovations, adding that it was too early to predict the return on the investment.

Of course, airport officials hope that all of these issues will be alleviated by the building of the new midfield terminal, which includes 300 short-term parking spaces and about 1,200 long-term spaces.

Optimistic estimates for that terminal, though, have it open for business at the end of 2009.

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