Welcome to PHX, but don't park your car

Since I have family only a thirty minutes drive from the airport, I rarely use this feature. But there have been a couple occasions when I would use the parking facilites at the airport. It was nice because you'd find a space, walk to the middle isle and a shuttle could come pick you up. I don't remember exactly how much it cost, but I think it was around $5/day.

All good things come to an end:

Parking fees set to rise at Sky Harbor
Airport lots too crowded
Ginger D. Richardson
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 6, 2005 12:00 AM

Skyrocketing passenger growth is causing a serious parking crunch at Sky Harbor International Airport, and officials believe there is only one way to fix the problem: charge more.

Parking fees are set to jump 25 to 60 percent by the first of the year and could even double if people keep using the lots at the rate they are now, officials said. That means that rates could reach as much as $10 a day in the economy service lots and $25 a day in the terminal garages.

The goal is to increase the fees so much that it deters frequent fliers from leaving their cars at the airport for days at a time.

"We have to be able to control demand," Assistant Aviation Director Carl Newman said. "That's really what we are trying to do here."

A subcommittee of the Aviation Advisory Board, which is charged with reviewing airport policies, is set to vote on the proposed changes this afternoon; the Phoenix City Council will have the final say on the increases, likely voting next month.

The move to raise parking rates comes at a time when Sky Harbor is grappling with a tremendous surge in passenger traffic. More than 40 million people are expected to fly in and out of the airport this year, a 5 percent increase from 2004.

"We've set passenger records for the past two years," Sky Harbor spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez said. "We're just getting busier and busier."

And in no place is that more evident than in the parking garages and lots.

Sky Harbor boasts more than 21,664 parking spaces. But acting parking superintendent Debbie Klein said that during the busy spring and summer travel season, the economy lots and garages were filled to capacity five days a week, forcing the airport to redirect passengers to one of its overflow lots.

Those regularly started closing, too.

Even now, when passengers historically don't fly in peak numbers, the lots are consistently full every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The situation isn't much better at the pricier terminal garages.

Passengers routinely are forced to park on the roof, and at Terminal 4, the garage has also closed eight times since May because there were no more available spaces.

The airport is in the process of building a $43 million economy garage to help ease the problem, but it fears that will soon be overloaded if the rates don't change.

Without higher fees, "we are never going to keep up," Klein said.

Sky Harbor's current rates are much lower than other major airports', and the economy lot fees are comparable to those charged by off-site airport parking facilities, officials said.

But with changes, parking at Sky Harbor will cost passengers roughly what they would pay at other major airports, Newman said.

For example, Los Angeles International charges $30 a day to use the terminal garage and $10 a day for the economy lots.

Fliers parking at Chicago O'Hare, San Francisco International and Boston Logan pay similar fees.

Officials here say they are proposing a step rate increase in order to monitor how much it will take to really curb demand. They plan to raise fees a little at first and then more if the first increase doesn't work.

Here's how it would work:

Daily parking rates in the economy surface lots would go from $5 a day to $8 a day, while fees in the economy garages would increase from $7 a day to $10 a day. Terminal rates would go from $16 to $20.

But if too many cars were still left at the airport, officials would increase the rates again. This time, economy surface parking would jump to $10 a day, double what it is now. Economy garage fees would increase to $12 a day, and terminal garage rates would go all the way to $25 a day.

That's enough to make Milton Dellossier think twice about parking at the airport on one of his many business trips.

"To be honest, the smaller increase probably wouldn't be enough to stop me from parking (in the terminal garage)," Dellossier said. "But if it goes to $25, I would have to rethink my schedule, maybe park in one of the economy lots, because that is a pretty substantial increase."

My biggest gripe about their argument of "other cities charge more" is that EVERYTHING costs more in those cities. Just like housing prices, people making modest livings can't afford the huge increases.

I guess I've been lucky in that when I flew to Chicago in June, our drivers were able to find parking in the terminal parking garage to help us with our luggage. But I do remember hearing on the Phoenix news stations last holiday season was a parking nightmare.

I've also read that holiday travel prices are twice last year's prices. The airlines are gambling that people will pony up the money and help them offset their higher costs. I'm going to be watching this closely - because if people decide the higher prices aren't worth it, then they'll have to slash prices to fill seats. It'd be kinda cool to go back to Chicago for the holidays (if I don't freeze my butt off in the process).