5.
City Council Special Work Session
- Meeting Date:
- 11/23/2021
- From:
- Barney Helmick, Airport Director
TITLE
Flagstaff Pulliam Airport Paid Parking Program
STAFF RECOMMENDED ACTION:
This is a work session for the Council to hear further about the proposed paid parking program at the Flagstaff Pulliam Airport, along with rates we plan to bring forward for consideration at a Council meeting in December. City staff also will provide more information about the parking system mechanics and intended use of the paid parking revenues.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The Flagstaff Pulliam Airport is a key component to the global marketplace, facilitating local, national, and international commerce as well as supporting our number one economic driver, tourism. Business activity is dependent upon the existence of efficient access to all transportation modes, one being local air service. A recent economic study, performed by Arizona Department of Transportation, identified that the Flagstaff Pulliam Airport generates $60 million annually for our economy.
American Airlines and United Airlines both provide commercial service daily at our airport. American has routes to Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth and United provides a route to Denver. With the addition of United Airlines, our passenger enplanements grew by 72%. In 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic, over 86,000 passengers continued flying out of Flagstaff Pulliam Airport with our highest enplanement year in 2019 reaching 123,957. This increased patron activity added to our need to increase parking capacity by constructing a second parking lot that will be complete in 2022.
Important to mention that long before we added more passengers to our footprint, we had several other factors that created parking issues for our patrons. We had several people parking at our airport that did not have airport business but merely were meeting at the airport, parking, and driving to their other destination. We also had some residents actually parking other vehicles in our lots as though it were a storage unit. In order for us to remove people that have no airport business from our lots, as well as serve our increased patron enplanement traffic, we recommend a paid parking program for both our existing lot and the new lot that is almost complete. A paid parking model will help offer more spots to our flying public as well as create a long term revenue source for the airport to recover the cost of construction, provide for ongoing operational and maintenance and help the Airport become self-sustaining as an enterprise fund.
Our new parking lot will add 413 parking spaces to the total inventory, a bus turnout, wider sidewalks leading to the terminal, bicycle lanes, and we are including artwork and internal walk paths. The existing lot has 385 parking spaces and will need upgrades that will begin next summer. These upgrades will include a pavement seal coat, curb improvements, fencing, and paint striping.
The City of Flagstaff Management Services Division has prepared a financial plan including a rate analysis for the Flagstaff Pulliam Airport Parking Plan. The proposed rates are to ensure our Airport Fund has sufficient revenues to meet operational and capital obligations. It is our desire to establish service charges and rates that fully fund operations, maintenance, and capital for present and future airport funds.
American Airlines and United Airlines both provide commercial service daily at our airport. American has routes to Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth and United provides a route to Denver. With the addition of United Airlines, our passenger enplanements grew by 72%. In 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic, over 86,000 passengers continued flying out of Flagstaff Pulliam Airport with our highest enplanement year in 2019 reaching 123,957. This increased patron activity added to our need to increase parking capacity by constructing a second parking lot that will be complete in 2022.
Important to mention that long before we added more passengers to our footprint, we had several other factors that created parking issues for our patrons. We had several people parking at our airport that did not have airport business but merely were meeting at the airport, parking, and driving to their other destination. We also had some residents actually parking other vehicles in our lots as though it were a storage unit. In order for us to remove people that have no airport business from our lots, as well as serve our increased patron enplanement traffic, we recommend a paid parking program for both our existing lot and the new lot that is almost complete. A paid parking model will help offer more spots to our flying public as well as create a long term revenue source for the airport to recover the cost of construction, provide for ongoing operational and maintenance and help the Airport become self-sustaining as an enterprise fund.
Our new parking lot will add 413 parking spaces to the total inventory, a bus turnout, wider sidewalks leading to the terminal, bicycle lanes, and we are including artwork and internal walk paths. The existing lot has 385 parking spaces and will need upgrades that will begin next summer. These upgrades will include a pavement seal coat, curb improvements, fencing, and paint striping.
The City of Flagstaff Management Services Division has prepared a financial plan including a rate analysis for the Flagstaff Pulliam Airport Parking Plan. The proposed rates are to ensure our Airport Fund has sufficient revenues to meet operational and capital obligations. It is our desire to establish service charges and rates that fully fund operations, maintenance, and capital for present and future airport funds.
INFORMATION:
The airport paid parking system will be different from our downtown ParkFlag's system in that airport users do not typically park by the hour. We will use a gate arm system that will include possible other elements within the airport terminal with a kiosk and even an ability to pay from your phone. These elements will be further discussed with our parking vendor. We have researched and found that we should not use a kiosk solely model like ParkFlag. Staff proposes a gated system will also help with security of the parked vehicles and much more.
Even though the airport system will be different than downtown's, our intent is to have the program managed by the same team within ParkFlag. Costs for staff and additional needs have been put into the attached financial plan. We anticipate that there will be efficiencies in using the same staff to manage the two programs, and we will have the parking experts monitoring all areas.
Prior to 2019, parking at the airport was always a negative situation during the key holiday travel periods. When the increase in passenger usage began in 2019 this impact became year around. This year we have seen a return of 95% of the 2019 passenger counts. We fully expect to see continued growth which will increase demand and a paid parking system will be a key solution to making sure our flying public has a good experience.
In 2022, we plan to monitor usage of both lots. This will allow us to continually look at options in the future to encourage alternative methods of travel to the airport that don't require always parking.
Even though the airport system will be different than downtown's, our intent is to have the program managed by the same team within ParkFlag. Costs for staff and additional needs have been put into the attached financial plan. We anticipate that there will be efficiencies in using the same staff to manage the two programs, and we will have the parking experts monitoring all areas.
Prior to 2019, parking at the airport was always a negative situation during the key holiday travel periods. When the increase in passenger usage began in 2019 this impact became year around. This year we have seen a return of 95% of the 2019 passenger counts. We fully expect to see continued growth which will increase demand and a paid parking system will be a key solution to making sure our flying public has a good experience.
In 2022, we plan to monitor usage of both lots. This will allow us to continually look at options in the future to encourage alternative methods of travel to the airport that don't require always parking.