"Full lots lead DIA to plan 5,000 more parking spots"

Friday, August 6, 2004

Full lots lead DIA to plan 5,000 more parking spots
By Jeffrey Leib 
The Denver (CO) Post


Surging passenger traffic at Denver International Airport is making it
harder to find airport parking at peak travel times, so DIA officials
plan to spend about $34 million for 5,000 new parking spaces. 

Thursday afternoon, Larry Richardson cruised the east-side parking
garages for at least 10 minutes looking for a parking spot.

"The sign said the third level had open spaces, but there was nothing
there," Richardson said.

Signs posted on Peņa Boulevard on Thursday told travelers that DIA's
economy lots on both sides of the terminal were full. Those lots total
8,200 spaces.

When travelers got to the covered garages, they found many levels filled
there as well.
 
Airport officials said they expect to add 3,000 additional spaces to the
Pikes Peak satellite parking lot on Peņa Boulevard for a cost of about
$7 million. If, as expected, the project wins final approval from DIA's
management in the coming days, construction will take about a year, said
airport spokesman Chuck Cannon.

DIA also plans to build another covered parking structure at the south
end of the existing west-side terminal garages for about $27 million.

The new garage will have about 2,000 spaces, and construction is to
begin early in 2006. But DIA finance chief Stan Koniz said the
construction schedule for the new covered garage could be pushed up -
perhaps to next year - if passenger traffic continues to increase. It
will take two years to build the new garage, Cannon said.

On Wednesday, DIA said passenger volume for the first six months of this
year was up nearly 22 percent over the same period in 2003.

On Wednesday, all spaces in the west-side parking garages at DIA were
full.

In all, the airport has about 34,000 public parking spaces, but about
8,500 of those are in the remote Mount Elbert lot south of DIA's cargo
complex and are typically used only for overflow parking during busy
holiday travel periods.

DIA charges $15 a day for parking in its garages, $7 a day for the
economy lots and $5 a day for the Pikes Peak and Mount Elbert satellite
lots.

Private parking operators at DIA also have seen growth in business.

"Everybody in the parking business has done better over the last three
months," said Karl Kelman, marketing manager for USAirport Parking on
Tower Road, just north of Peņa Boulevard.

Late last year, Kelman's company doubled its parking-lot capacity to
about 8,000 spaces.

USAirport Parking charges $12 a day for about 600 covered parking spaces
and $7 a day for uncovered spaces, though Kelman points out that
discounts are available for many customers.

The company also has a "frequent parker" program that rewards travelers
for multiple visits.

Attached Photo:

Signs at DIA indicate limited parking Thursday. The airport says its
volume is up nearly 22 percent over the first half of last year.

diapark.jpg