Airport Parking Reservation Systems and Techniques (2025)
Chapter: 1 Introduction
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
1.1 Overview
This synthesis assists airport staff, and others interested in airport parking, in understanding the use of parking reservations and enabling online booking systems (OBSs) at U.S. airports, including their benefits and costs and the implementation challenges staffs have experienced.
To enable parking reservations, airports use an OBS, which may include standalone equipment and software offered by a third party or a software application integrated into the airport’s Parking Access and Revenue Control System (PARCS). In either case, the OBS provides customers access through mobile devices (including smartphones) and other computing devices. They are typically compatible with a variety of different web browsers and facilitate a parking reservation and sales process for potential customers.
Airports manage these functions through a variety of airport and contractor models. The OBS, whether provided as standalone equipment connected via an application programming interface to the PARCS or integrated into the PARCS directly, may be operated by airports themselves or by a contracted operator. This operational function is sometimes joined by revenue management, which may be performed internally by the airport, contracted through the parking operator, or provided by a different vendor through a separate contract to the airport. Other airport personnel may also be involved, including those in capital programs (for related facility issues) and marketing (for airport branding as part of the OBS website and to optimize its presence and online search engine).
Parking reservation systems enable airport customers to prebook their parking at an airport facility and pay in advance for the service. The customer may also receive a discount on the published drive-up price of the parking product. For airport staff, parking reservations provide information on the customer that is typically incorporated into the airport’s customer relationship management (CRM). This enables more tailored communications and potentially informs more sophisticated parking pricing strategies.
In addition to guaranteeing a parking space, airport management staffs are using OBSs to increase revenues generated from parking by proactively pushing offers to their customers. Prior to the use of parking reservations, customers drove to the airport and chose a parking facility based on posted prices, opting for the best option that balanced their own calculation of price and convenience. This “fixed pricing” approach did not vary with changes in daily, weekly, or seasonal demand for parking. Airports would periodically change these posted prices either by asking the airport governing board for rate adjustment approval or using the authority previously delegated to them by the governing board to implement the rate adjustments.
OBSs support a more sophisticated use of a “variable pricing” model, allowing airports to offer discounts from posted drive-up rates to attract additional customers for a parking product
at a particular time. Typically, discounts are used during periods of lower demand to encourage customers to choose airport parking rather than what otherwise would be less expensive alternatives, such as a ride app vehicle or off-airport parking lots managed by businesses independent of the airport. Information generated from the parking reservations, including dates, lengths of stay, and pricing, helps airports better forecast capacity and utilization of their various facilities and supports pricing decisions for future parking reservation customers. Together with past transaction histories, airports can find the patterns of demand, balance projected utilization of their facilities, and increase revenues.
“Dynamic pricing” takes variable pricing a step further by enabling real-time, minute-by-minute price changes in an airport’s OBS that then are connected to each of the various internet channels, including third parties, that offer the airport’s parking inventory for sale. Some U.S. airports are beginning to explore the potential for dynamic pricing to more effectively target price offers based on real-time changes in demand.
During the booking process, customers are offered products that may include valet, short-term or premium parking (normally adjacent to the terminal), and other products that could include “daily” parking or “economy” or long-term parking, some of which may require a shuttle from the parking facility to the airport terminal. Customers initially selecting one product in the online booking process may be offered an “upsell” product with a higher level of service, including valet or premium parking. This strategy enables airports to increase the total transaction value by aligning customer willingness to pay with desired service levels.
In some cases, OBSs also offer other products, such as access to an airport lounge, priority security, or an ancillary service, such as car washes and cleaning. The use of e-commerce to sell these services has advanced considerably over the last decade and is beginning to be explored by several airports.
The intent of this synthesis is to focus on these uses of OBSs by airports. It is not designed to be an in-depth study of pricing methodologies or e-commerce strategies that may form part of larger business objectives. Where relevant information of this kind is made available from the survey results or case interviews, it is included to highlight potential areas of interest for airport practitioners.
As noted in the surveys and use case examples in subsequent chapters, several airports have reported technological integration issues between the OBS and PARCS. These challenges have occasionally delayed system implementation, led to advanced bookings that are sometimes above a facility’s capacity, and created entry and exit problems for customers. This has raised airport management’s concerns about the readiness of these systems for widespread use. As the parking reservation business has matured over the last decade, these issues have gradually been reduced due to improved integration of equipment and software from different PARCS and OBS providers.
Another key issue highlighted in this study is inventory control, that is, the management of the airport’s parking capacity that is made available for prebooking. This requires a balance between enhancing customer convenience and potentially increasing revenues while ensuring that reservation customers do not exceed the allotted capacity set by the airport. According to the survey, airports typically set aside between 10% and 40% of the parking capacity for reservations, leaving the remaining capacity for drive-up customers without reservations.
1.2 Approach
This synthesis derived its findings from the following:
- A literature review of ACRP studies, other academic studies and journals, relevant news articles, and other public sources;
- A survey of U.S. airports that use an OBS; and
- Five use cases with airports, including interviews with key staff.
After completing the literature review, the synthesis team distributed the survey to 36 airport organizations of varying sizes. Eighteen organizations responded, and with some organizations managing more than 1 airport, a total of 20 airports were surveyed. The survey summary is presented in Chapter 3, with the detailed list of questions and responses found in Appendix B. The responses informed the selection of five use case airports to create the case examples. For airport categorization, the synthesis team used the FAA’s categorization framework.
The five airports selected for the case examples included one non-hub [Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County (STS)], one small hub [Greenville-Spartanburg International (GSP)], one medium hub [Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY)], and two large hubs [Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW) and Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX)].
