"D/FW May Charge $1 Entry Fee to Enter Facility"

Friday, June 20, 2003

Dallas-Area Airport May Charge $1 Entry Fee to Enter Facility
The Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram


There are no free rides, and the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport staff
recommends that there be no free drop-offs, either.

After consultants reviewed nine options for recouping lost parking
revenues, D/FW staff recommended Thursday that all motorists pay a $1
fee to enter the airport, whether they park or not.

In May 1999, with the economy booming, D/FW abandoned a 16-year policy
of a 50-cent entry fee. But with D/FW losing hundreds of thousands of
dollars in parking revenues each month and scrambling for every buck,
the entry fee may be put in place as soon as the July 3 airport board
meeting, said D/FW Senior Executive Vice President Kevin Cox.

"Those were good times -- we're now not in good times," Cox said.

At an airport board committee meeting Thursday, staff also recommended
raising the rate for remote parking to $6 per day from $5 and for
covered express parking to $10 per day from $9.

Consultant Leigh Fisher Associates looked at reducing the $16
terminal-parking rate to as low as $12 but could not find a way to
entice enough travelers to use the closer, more expensive parking.

Instead, airport officials are focusing on requiring drivers who
currently pay nothing to pay $1.

Board members at Thursday's Marketing/Business & Concession Committee
meeting were split over the idea. Board member Bob McAfee said he
thought at the time that dropping the 50-cent charge was a mistake.

"Once you take away a fee, it's very hard to put it back in -- it's the
perception," McAfee said.

Board member Robert Kolba said the $1 fee could be a mistake now.

"I hate to penalize the community," Kolba said.

Kolba said many motorists will feel that they are paying for no reason.

He also raised the possibility of converting some underused parking
areas into retail shops.

Drivers who don't park cost the airport $11.2 million per year in
security and processing fees.

The airport estimates that a $1 charge would raise parking revenues by
$8.3 million per year.

The committee could not reach consensus and will send the matter to the
full airport board for a vote July 3. The board meets at the airport
administration building, 3200 E. Airfield Drive.


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