The new year will bring paid parking to the San Luis Valley Regional Airport in Alamosa. Alamosa County and its airport management team are planning a $6 per day parking fee in a revenue-generating effort to make the local airport more sustainable.
Alamosa County Commissioners worked through the process with airport manager Will Hickman this week. The commissioners plan on adopting a resolution establishing a parking fee at its meeting on Jan. 10, at which time the parking fee will go into effect.
Alamosa County is using SpotHero as the parking vendor. It will use a system that will have customers scanning a QR code and entering their license plate number and dates for securing a parking space.
The SLV Regional Airport can handle 40 cars at its parking lot and is anticipating generating more than $79,000 a year in parking revenue. “The whole reason we entertained this idea and we decided to move forward is to help us become more self-sustaining at the airport which we are not self-sustaining right now,” Hickman told the Alamosa County Commissioners.
Parking signage and enforcement for those who fail to pay the parking fee or overstay in a parking space were issues the county commissioners wanted more clarity around before the strategy rolls out in mid-January.
Most airports charge for parking and the revenue is usually the number-one source of income for airports, Hickman said
“We want to charge a minimal amount, we don’t want to affect enplanements. The airport should do everything it can in its power to make it self-sustaining as possible and this is one of the tools that we’re going to be using.”