Parking deck work to limit airport spots

LR commissioner predicts frustration from customers

People using the state's largest airport will have limited access to its parking deck for the next month while it undergoes improvements, including the installation of an automated parking guidance system.

A member of the commission that governs Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field fears the temporary closure spells trouble for the airport if people arrive expecting to find a covered parking spot and one isn't available.

"You really need to think about that from a PR standpoint," Virgil Miller Jr. told airport staff at the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission's monthly meeting Tuesday. "I really hate to direct people over to some other covered parking area that's not ours, and they may never come back to us.

"Think about the public fallout. Some people do not want to park their car in an area that's not covered. I don't know what you do about that."

The deck is an important source of airport income. Its 851 spaces account for nearly a quarter of the 3,507 total parking spots available at the airport but generates a third of the $10 million in parking revenue, according to airport officials.

Concession revenue, which includes parking, is down 3 percent through June 30, to about $7 million, compared with the same period a year ago. Airport officials attributed the drop to fewer passengers using the airport, almost 8 percent less in the first six months of 2015 compared with the same period in 2014. Still, total net income for the airport is up 8 percent for the year, to $5.2 million, because of nonaviation income such as leases.

"I hate to lose parking revenue," Miller said. "We really need to think through that. There's some covered parking that is not ours. But I'm telling you, [some people] want their car covered."

Miller was referring to Expressway Parking, about a block from the airport. It offers covered parking for $10.95 daily and uses a shuttle to take customers to and from the airport. The company offers discounts if patrons make reservations online. It began offering a mobile app last month.

Clinton National closed off access to the third level of the deck Friday and plans to close the second level this Friday. The ground-floor level is reserved for rental cars.

The second level often is full, and the third deck is about half full most days, said Jim Bass, the airport's landside operations manager. The average stay in the deck is 31/2 days. It costs $13 daily to park in the deck.

The automated parking guidance system for the deck is part of a state-of-the-art access and revenue control system the airport is installing at a cost of up to $2.8 million. Airport officials said in March they had no plans to raise parking fees to cover the cost of the system.

The project eventually will include a pre-booking application for parking linked to the airport's website and available for patrons to use from their computer or smartphone. It also allows the ability to process transactions through patrons' smartphones.

A $660,000 license-plate recognition system is included with the proposal to "increase revenue security," according to airport officials. Such a system checks the ticket against actual time in the lot, preventing errors and cheating anywhere on the parking deck.

Act 1491 of 2013, which governs the use of automatic license-plate reader systems in Arkansas, allows the readers to be used "by parking enforcement entities for regulating the use of parking facilities."

Using the license readers would replace a system in which two airport employees manually record the license plates in the airport parking lots nightly.

Airport officials believe the parking guidance system will be a selling point for patrons. They note Clinton National will be only the fourth airport in the United States to have it installed and the first to use the particular system it purchased.

Each parking space will have lights to indicate whether they are occupied [red] or not [green] to allow deck users to determine whether to go down a row or move to the next one. A large electronic sign outside the deck will indicate whether the deck is full.

Miller also expressed concern about publicizing the deck parking situation. But airport officials said the closing is posted on the Clinton National website, and they plan to make additional announcements via social media and news releases. A sign also will greet patrons when they come into the airport, they said.

They also said the entire deck won't be closed throughout the work, which also includes repainting the striping and replacing netting that protects the deck from birds nesting in it.

"As soon as the third level is done, we'll open it up and complete the second level," said Tom Clarke, the airport's properties, planning and development director. "So we're not going to have both levels closed for the full 30 days. We will have one or the other closed."

"But for a while, we're not going to have any covered parking?" Miller asked.

"There will be some overlap ... a week or so," Clarke responded.

Any fallout from the closure will be limited because "the service in that garage will be unparalleled in the state of Arkansas," said Ron Mathieu, the airport's executive director.

Miller wasn't convinced.

"I understand that," he said. "I know it's going to be great and wonderful when it's done. I have no doubt about that. I'm excited about it. But I'm telling you in the meantime if somebody comes out here and they can't get covered parking, they're going to be real upset."

Metro on 07/22/2015

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