Reserving Ahead is a Good Idea–Just Ask the Times

Michelle Higgins wrote in last Sunday’s NY Times travel section about how to make life easier, when it comes to parking at the airport. She called Tom Lombardi, president of Airport Parking Reservations, and he gave her some tips on how to save money.

“AirportParkingReservations.com allow travelers to search for and reserve a parking spot at so-called off-airport lots by plugging in their departure airport and travel dates.
AirportParkingReservations, based in Madison, Conn., offers reservations for spots near 67 airports, which it plots on a Google map to give users a sense of how far they are from the terminals.

In addition to peace of mind, these online services can save money over airport parking lots. For example, the cheapest lots at Hartsfield in Atlanta cost $9 a day. APR has parking as low as $7 a day. The trade-off, of course, is the distance to the terminal.

Not to be outdone, airports are working on their own improvements to ease parking congestion. Kennedy is planning to build a 1,500-space garage across from the new JetBlue terminal in time for summer travel. Construction for a 5,000-vehicle parking ramp is under way at Minneapolis-St. Paul International, bringing its total to 22,000. Hartsfield regularly updates the status of its parking lots on its Web site, http://www.atlanta-airport.com/. (The day after Christmas, all three economy lots were full, but seven other lots, including daily and airport park-ride shuttle lots were open.)