At the start of 2023, Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) raised its parking rates for flyers leaving their vehicles at the airport.
Financially, the move is paying off in a big way for the airport that’s been seeking to beef up alternative revenue streams after the loss of so much business during the lengthy COVIID-19 pandemic.
According to a recent report made by airport staff to the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority – the seven-member board that oversees the airport – even though the final 2023 numbers aren’t in, the parking rate changes appear as though they’ll bring several more million dollars annually to the airport’s coffers.
According to that report, “Incremental Parking Revenues from the January 2023 rate increases were $299K for the month and stand at just over $1.6M favorable for the year. Given that the effective period of the rate increase was just under 6 months, this implies an estimated $3M+ effect on an ongoing annual basis.”
The airport and it’s projects are almost always very costly endeavors, so every $3 million in new revenue helps.
Last year at this time, a person who left their car in the premium parking lot directly across the street from the departures terminal building, would pay $10 a day. Since the start of 2023, people parking there have been paying $15 a day.
New rate hikes,– which took effect at the airport’s other parking lots as well – are predicted to be even more lucrative in future years since PTIA has been seeing a steady increase in its passenger traffic for a long time and they expect that trend to continue.
One positive parking trend is that, this year, the airport expects to make more money from parking than it did in its all-time highest year in that regard – 2019– the year right before the pandemic hit.
The moving target zeroed in by big govt and big business will work until they run of other people’s money.
Socialism 101.
And Golly Gosh! We’re all thrilled that the higher parking charges are making PTI an additional $3 Million a year…. and depriving the flying public of the same amount.
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Scott Yost now seems to be a Pollyanna shill for the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority as they screw the public to boost their bottom line.
It’s enough to make me drive to RDU and find a direct flight.
How much does the board pay for their parking?
How nice they are making money. I ceased flying from PTI (formerly GSO) years ago because their fares were invariably ridiculously higher than Raleigh or Charlotte, which also have parking lots. I prefer driving anyway and have no compelling desire to spend money on travel. But, just as the City and County seek to extract more funds from their citizens, I tend to eschew the most overpriced and highly-taxed services for simpler, lower-cost alternatives, and if the City and County do not decide to reduce their exactions, I will move elsewhere, since I find I need less and less of what they offer and resent more and more what they expect me to pay for benefits I do not receive nor desire. The leaf collection fiasco has been particularly instructive to me that their priorities are not mine.