"Raleigh, N.C.-Area Airport's Parking Fees Set to Rise"

Friday, August 22, 2003

Raleigh, N.C.-Area Airport's Parking Fees Set to Rise
The Raleigh (NC) News & Observer


A new 6,408-space parking deck isn't all that's rising this year at
Raleigh-Durham International Airport. So are the prices. 

The opening of the parking deck in November will bring a host of other
changes, including an increase in parking rates, a new express payment
system and the closing of surface lots near the terminals.

The rate increase, backed by an airport committee Thursday and expected to
receive approval from the full Airport Authority next month, is the fifth in
the last decade. The $1 hourly rate will remain the same, but the cost of
parking in the daily area of the parking decks will rise to $10, up from $8
today.

The price of parking in the two largest surface lots, Park-and-Ride lots 3
and 4, also will rise to $6, from $5 and $4 respectively.

The new parking deck will bring in $7 million a year to pay off its
construction costs plus those of an adjacent 2,700-space deck, which opened
in 2000. The two decks cost about $130 million to build.

With 11,000 parking spaces to be available between the two terminals by
Thanksgiving, the airport also plans to consolidate its park-and-ride lots.
Lot 1, closest to the terminals, will close, and Lot 2 will open only as an
overflow lot during busy times, which will eliminate the airport's cost of
shuttle bus service to the terminals.

A portion of Park-and-Ride Lot 1 will be used for a new energy plant for
Terminal C, about to undergo a renovation. The airport is also looking at
starting a valet service, and the remainder of the lot could be used for
valet parking.

The airport also is shutting the surface lots across from Terminal A because
of the new deck configuration. The airport has no immediate plans for that
space.

When airline travel out of RDU hit its peak in 2000, the airport had plans
to build a third deck and enlarge the parking garages in front of Terminal
C, but those plans are now on hold. Customers had been asking for more
spaces closer to the terminals, an RDU spokeswoman said, and the new deck
should be more than adequate.

Shutting some of the park-and-ride lots, where it is cheaper to park, is one
way to get travelers to use the pricier parking decks.

But airport officials say the decks are where most people want to park
anyway because they are more convenient.

"I don't think people are going to complain about parking between the
terminals," said Airport Authority member Bob Winston. "They're going to be
happy to be in control of their destinies."

Not everyone. George Hossfield, an engineer from Charlotte, saves hundreds
of dollars by driving to RDU, where the fares are cheaper than at his
hometown airport. He parked in a deck at RDU for his most recent trip.

"Every time you turn around, they're raising the price of parking," he said.
"It's too much. It's getting up to where Boston is."

RDU's new rate will be average for airports around the country, airport
officials said. The rates for deck parking range from $7 a day in Norfolk,
Va., to $13 a day in Columbus, Ohio.

When the new parking deck opens, RDU will introduce an automated payment
program for parkers.

Travelers will be able to feed their parking ticket stubs into machines
between the terminals and parking garages and pay with cash or credit cards.
The machines will return validated stubs that can be fed into another
machine at the exit gate.

Next spring, the airport will institute a frequent-parker program for
business travelers, a card that automatically deducts the parking fees.

RDU also will begin charging for parking in the surface lots around the new
General Aviation terminal, which serves private planes and corporate jets.

Parking there once meant finding a spot in a hodgepodge of lots without
entry or exit controls. Several new surface lots have been built, and the
airport plans to charge $3 a day beyond a four-hour grace-period.


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