
Customer Satisfaction
The
ease with which airport parking customers can locate open parking spaces close to
the terminal directly relates to their satisfaction. Parking customers,
however, are often unaware of parking shortages until arriving at the airport.
This leads to stress, frustration and the potential of missing flights. If
parking shortages occur regularly, airports risk losing parking revenue when
customers switch to using private parking facilities, different modes of
transport such as buses, trains or being dropped off and picked up by family or
friends. Moreover, getting customers to return to using airport parking once
they have switched to other options is never easy.
Increased Traffic Congestion
& Emissions
Travelers
going from one parking lot to another in search of parking spaces increase the
volume of traffic on airport roadways. However, even when travelers choose not
to park at airports, the potential for traffic congestion on airport property
and surrounding roadways can increase substantially.
The
number of vehicle trips to airports and on surrounding roads can more than
double when travelers switch from parking at the airport to being dropped off
and picked up by family or friends. When travelers park at airports, they make
one trip. They drive in once, park and leave once. However, cars drive in and
leave once when dropping off travelers then they drive in and leave a second
time for the pickup. In the common situation where returning travelers are
delayed, pickup vehicles often circle airport roadways, find free places to
stand, idle and wait or drive to and from remote areas waiting for a phone call
from the arrived traveler ("cell phone parking area"). In such cases,
the travelers' shift away from airport parking increases traffic congestion and
auto emissions while generating no parking revenue for the airports.
Airport Employees
While
the primary focus of airport parking is generating revenue from travelers and
visitors, airport employees must not be overlooked. Employees working directly
for airports and those working for airlines and airport vendors and service
providers need reasonable commuting access to their workplaces. Access may be
via public transport or by driving and parking at the airport. A lack of
convenient and affordable parking for airport employees can make it more
difficult and costly to retain employees, especially those who are temporary or
part time.
Solutions for Poor Airport
Parking
Poor
airport parking situations may have some positive benefits. For example, if poor
parking gets more travelers and employees to leave their cars at home and take
mass transit to airports, that should be an overall benefit. However, studies
show this rarely happens in meaningful volume and the airports still lose
revenue.
The
better solution is to provide more parking spaces. This is done easily and
cost-effectively with automated parking systems like those from Skyline
Parking.
Give us a call to find out how much added revenue you can generate by adding more
parking spaces at your airport.
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