In 2019, before the COVID pandemic hit, airport revenues were on the rise, reaching $172.2 billion as passenger traffic increased by 7.5% in 2017. Experts today predict the industry won’t reach those levels again until the middle of 2022. In the meantime, airports must do whatever they can to keep profits as high as possible. Parking usually falls into an airport’s top three sources of revenue, providing 41% of landside revenues and growing, especially in smaller airports. With people traveling again, airports can turn their attention to doing more with and getting more from their parking assets, by investing in smart parking.
With rideshare app use down dramatically since the start of the pandemic, more people are driving themselves to airports. This bump in airport parking use comes with a bump in airport traffic, which means congestion, confusion, and irritation. To mitigate these factors, airports must integrate smart technologies such as GPS and networked monitoring and control devices to create a smart parking experience that is automated, simplified, and frictionless for both use and payment. New technologies are constantly emerging to help turn today’s crowded parking lots into tomorrow’s seamless and convenient revenue generators, and the airports that stay on the cutting edge of innovation will also lead the pack in profitability.
Any driver will tell you that the worst part of parking is finding a parking space. There are few experiences as mundane and miserable (that don’t involve a dental drill) as roving through a parking lot seeking desperately for a spot. Parking guidance systems can eliminate this hassle, minimizing traffic congestion in a parking facility while maximizing time spent in a paid parking spot. Cameras or magnetic, ultrasound, or infrared sensors can count spaces in an area and inform drivers of where those spaces are, even using apps to guide cars. The more drivers have such an app, the more a parking garage becomes a self-sustaining machine, with cars being guided seamlessly to the nearest available spots. Airports can even install signage that directs each car as it approaches.
Airports can also increase parking lot profitability by letting travelers pay extra to avoid the spot hunt altogether and be guaranteed a plum spot. By introducing VIP parking areas and allowing pre-booking, airports can charge a premium to let people reserve a spot closer to the terminals. Airports can offer spaces with amenities such as security gating, scheduled detailing, fuel top-off, valet service, and more to create a specialized experience. As travelers using such a service can be asked to input their flight information, airports can use their customer data to target advertisements to generate further revenue..
These options are merely scratching the surface of what a smart parking facility can do. Geo-fencing can create monitored outdoor parking facilities where vehicles are charged for being within the digitally fenced limits, eliminating exit and entry queues when navigating a parking area. Mobile payment makes paying for parking more efficient and eliminates the need to touch surfaces used by others in the time of COVID, and can work as simply as scanning a phone on the driver’s way in or out.
No matter what steps airport managers take to implement smart parking, these processes involve integrated smart parking apps. Whether to guide drivers to designated spots or to let premium customers reserve VIP spots, smart parking apps bring a smart facility together, and can even be used to fill unused spaces with people parking to visit other nearby facilities. Even better, smart parking apps collect data for analytics to help predict traveller behavior and further streamline airport efficiency, creating a fully integrated smart airport experience from parking to departure, and maximizing revenue from more efficient, productive parking assets.
Jeremy Zuker is the co-founder of WhereiPark, a technology company that enables multifamily residential and commercial property owners to discover new revenue sources through innovative solutions that leverage unused parking spaces.
