Green- but complain about the cost of parking.
John Simon, who travels every week as a salesman for Samsonite Corp., has seen his share of airports – and airport parking fees.
So when Simon saw another parking rate hike at T.F. Green Airport in July – the third rate increase in the four years that Simon has been flying regularly out of Green – he could only shake his head.
“I travel all over the country, and I think rates are much higher (at Green) than most major cities,” Simon said.
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He’s right, according to a Providence Business News review of parking fees at major airports on the East Coast and elsewhere. The survey shows that Green’s rates are often more than 50 percent higher than rates at comparably sized airports in the Northeast, and even eclipse the fees charged by airports in big cities like New York and Washington, D.C.
T.F. Green charges $19 a day for garage parking and $13 a day (maximum of $56 a week) for parking in its “weekly” lot south of the terminal, which is served by free shuttles. Compare those fees with daily rates at Manchester Airport in New Hampshire ($14 garage, $8 long term); Hartford’s Bradley International Airport ($16, $7.50); and Philadelphia International Airport ($16, $7).
“Business travelers often complain about how high the parking rates are at Green,” said Maryann Sasso, president of Pearson Travel in Providence. “Corporate clients have become very conscious of the rates because travel budgets have been cut back so much.”
The review included major airports within the Federal Aviation Administration’s New England and Eastern regions.
Green’s long-term rate is the third highest of the 22 airports researched, and its charge for garage parking ranked seventh, behind Boston, Baltimore, Buffalo and airports in the New York City area.
And Green’s parking fees don’t fare much better when compared with airports in other parts of the country. For instance, air travelers can park in long-term lots at the country’s three busiest airports – Chicago O’Hare ($13), Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport ($8) and Los Angeles International Airport ($8) – for the same rate or cheaper than at Green.
Of the 7,040 parking spaces controlled by Green, more than 60 percent (4,300) are in the long-term lot. The balance comes from Garage A (1,340 spaces), which is the daily garage; Garage B, which is a $27-a-day valet garage (750 spots); and Garage D (650), which is for hourly use only.
Dan Clarke, director of property management at T.F. Green, said that Garage A, which is the closest daily parking facility to the terminal, has an average occupancy rate of 90 percent.
“That tells us it’s priced properly, because people are willing to pay the $19 to be able to park right next to the terminal,” Clarke said. “It breaks down to supply and demand.”
Clarke added that the weekly lot has an average occupancy rate of 50 to 60 percent, which he said is “considered decent” for economy parking.
Michael Cheston, executive director of the Rhode Island Airport Corp., which runs T.F. Green, insists that the airport’s parking rates are not excessive.
“We look at other regional airports to make sure we’re at least in the same ballpark, and I absolutely think our rates are fair and comparable to other airports in the region,” Cheston said.
Cheston said it’s difficult to make meaningful comparisons between airports, because so many variables are involved. For example, larger airports are likely to have more land available for remote lots. And Cheston said many airports offer cheap rates in economy lots that are less convenient and much farther away from the terminal than the long-term lot at Green.
Green’s parking rates are reviewed each summer and approved by RIAC’s board of directors. The board elected to raise rates last summer – from $17 to $19 for the garage and from $12 to $13 for the weekly lot – but Cheston said RIAC’s hand was forced because of added security costs and a new tax passed by the General Assembly.
“We’ve absorbed a tremendous amount of additional expenses for security over the past year, and that comes right out of our hide,” Cheston said. “We understand that we don’t want to price ourselves out of business, but at the same time we’re not going to subsidize parking.
A bill passed by the state legislature earlier this year levies a 5 percent tax on all airport parking, which goes to compensate the city of Warwick. Without raising rates last summer, RIAC would have seen 5 percent of its parking revenue vanish.
Regardless of the reasons, weary business travelers only see parking prices edging higher.
“They just keep going up and up, and it’s gotten extremely expensive,” Simon said. “In most major cities – and I’m not sure Providence is considered a major city – you can park for $12 or $13 a day in the garage and seven or eight bucks in economy.
One notable exception, however, is Boston’s Logan International Airport, which charges $22 a day for garage parking and $16 for economy parking – both $3 more than Green.
Cheston concedes that RIAC takes into account Logan’s rates when setting its own parking fees, because the airports compete for some of the same air travelers. He says the comparisons are logical: Logan is bigger and more expensive to operate than Green, and Green is larger and more expensive than, say, Manchester Airport.
But Green’s rates in some cases nearly double those of similar-sized regional airports. Rates at Albany International Airport in New York – albeit slightly smaller than Green – are $10 for garage parking and range from $5 to $9 for long-term lots. While Green has about 40 percent more parking space than Albany, its $20.2 million revenue from parking last year was more than two-and-a-half times greater than Albany’s $8.5 million.
Doug Myers, director of public affairs at Albany International, said the airport aims to cover the cost of operating its parking facilities while keeping rates affordable for passengers.
“We don’t look at parking so much as revenue, although it does bring in quite a bit of revenue,” Myers said. “But we opened this airport so we can bring down fares, and it wouldn’t make much sense for us to turn around and charge a lot for parking.”
In addition to on-site parking at Green, a number of private businesses operate off-site lots along Post Road, including the New England Parking Co., which owns Garage C near the terminal. Over the past few months the company has been running a TV commercial touting “the absolute lowest airport parking rates” of $13 a day, featuring a herd of cartoon elephants stampeding into the garage, eager to “park for peanuts.”
The ad illustrates a growing level of competition between RIAC and private parking vendors, which also include Airport Valet, PreFlight Airport Parking and Thrifty Car Rental. Combined, the private operators took in $8.8 million in 2001, according to RIAC.
Sasso, of Pearson Travel, said that more and more clients have been clamoring for special deals.
“Business people usually don’t like coupons,” Sasso said “But when we ran out, they were asking for more.”
