Airport plans new parking scheme

Dayton International Airport expects to pay $2.3 million this year to operate its parking lots and parking garage, but there is a healthy return on that investment: nearly $12 million in projected revenue for the airport, the citys director of aviation said.

Parking is typically a major revenue producer for airports and will be a big piece of the Dayton airports expected $26 million in total revenue this year, aviation director Terrence G. Slaybaugh said.

With that in mind, here are Slaybaughs plans for revamping the airports parking scheme:

Market the garage for use as a long-term parking site, rather than short-term, in efforts to make it more appealing to business travelers who leave town for extended trips. The garages maximum daily rate is to be reduced on Sept. 1 to $15, down from the current $18, to align it more closely with daily rates of $12 to $14 at nearby long-term, surface parking lots. Airport management is considering offering companies special rates to reserve spaces in the garage.

Put up new signs within six months to give travelers a clearer idea of what parking alternatives are available and where they are.

A cellphone lot, which some other U.S. airports offer as a place where people can await arriving travelers and their phone calls, is to be established as soon as late September.

For this month, the airport has reduced its $6-a-day rate in economy parking to $5, to attract summer leisure travelers.

Free parking for up to 30 minutes will be relocated to the short-term parking area.

The parking garage opened last year, which has a total of 1,400 public spaces on its top two floors, is underused, Slaybaugh said. In a prior job as aviation director overseeing the Rochester, N.Y., airport, he refocused that garage for long-term parking and saw increased usage, he said.

We need to get the business traveler in it, Slaybaugh said of the garage at the Dayton airport, where business passengers account for 60 percent of the traffic.