HANOVER TWP., LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa. — Parking fees at Lehigh Valley International Airport will increase this year, after the Airport Authority Board of Governors voted Tuesday to approve the first rate hike in 15 years.
Starting in early October, short-term parking will cost $3 an hour, capped at $24 per day, while a spot in the long-term lot will run $16 per day and $89 per week.
That amounts to an additional $1 per hour and $2 per day for the short-term lot, while rates in the long-term lot will rise $2 per day and $10 per week.
Rate hikes weigh a need to fund new parking infrastructure against a need to keep prices low.Lehigh Northampton Airport Authority Executive Director Tom Stoudt
Drivers also will be able to park for up to 15 minutes in either lot for free, up from 10 minutes under the current rules.
Rate hikes weigh a need to fund new parking infrastructure against a need to keep prices low, Lehigh Northampton Airport Authority Executive Director Tom Stoudt said.
Stoudt pointed to similar or larger increases at other airports of a comparable size.
The increase officials approved “is the right balance when we look at all the things we’re trying to accomplish,” he told the board of governors Tuesday, while “staying in the metrics for our region,”
The airport authority aims to impose the higher rates Oct. 1 or soon after.
Their success depends on the contractors responsible for maintaining their parking technology, who must travel to Hanover Township and reprogram the system.
Signs at the airport and web pages spelling out parking costs also will need to be changed.
Exploring new technologies
With a new parking garage at LVIA on the horizon, the airport authority is re-evaluating the way it manages parking on the property.
“There's a lot of discussion that we've been having about a parking structure here, really looking at what parking looks like in the future,” Stoudt said.
“We're just beginning to kind of ask our consultant teams to work with us to explain and walk through some of these technologies.”
Among those technologies is a system to let passengers reserve a parking spot online before arriving at LVIA, and to pay for it in advance.
When that time comes, “we will walk through a similar process like we did today, where we'll do a lot of research and take a look at a lot of our peers in the region and really try to understand what the rates should look like."Lehigh Northampton Airport Authority Executive Director Tom Stoudt
The airport authority also is exploring a way to implement dynamic pricing, which would let airport officials raise or lower prices depending on demand.
“Dynamic pricing is one we’ve really had on our radar,” said Tod Quann, the authority’s director of finance and administration.
New equipment could cost millions, he said, depending on what capabilities officials decide they want to pursue.
Though the current fee schedule survived 15 years without changes, the airport authority likely will evaluate parking rates again when officials determine how much to charge for parking in the planned parking garage.
When that time comes, “we will walk through a similar process like we did today, where we'll do a lot of research and take a look at a lot of our peers in the region and really try to understand what the rates should look like,” Stoudt said.
