As with any business, airports aim to maximize their profits by offering travelers the best services that suit their needs. In this context, the question of parking lot spaces for short-term and long-term parking arises since the two distinct categories of airport visitors perceive parking and its price differently. This paper aims to examine the issue of redistributing parking lot spaces between short-term and long-term stay spots within airports and determine the necessity of this step.
Short-term and long-term parking lot clients have different needs and consider different characteristics when choosing the preferred parking lot. Qin et al. argue that two main characteristics, price, and distance, determine the attitude of customers regarding airport parking (164). Moreover, long-term travelers consider both the distance and price when choosing a parking lot, while the other category only considers distance. This suggests that airports should redistribute these spots to ensure that the ratio suits the needs of travelers.
In case of avoiding parking lot redistribution, short-term travelers may be unable to access spaces reserved for the second category of visitors. Cheng and Qi describe the issue as follows – “approximately 75% of the users (short-term) are served by 10% to 30% of the spaces, but the remaining 25% (long-term) may require up to 90% of the parking spaces” (2). Therefore, the traditional approach to parking lot distribution in airports fails to satisfy the needs of short-term travelers because the majority of the space is occupied by vehicles staying there long-term. In general, it is worth readjusting the number of parking spot distribution between long-term and short-term lots because airport service quality is mostly dependant on the usability of parking spaces.
Works Cited
Cheng, Cheng, and Peng Qi. “Impact Analysis Of Parking Price Adjustment On The Quality Of Service Of Airport Parking Lots For Light Vehicles.” Journal of Advanced Transportation vol. 2019, 2019, pp. 1-9.
Qin, Huanmei et al. “Nested Logit Model Formation To Analyze Airport Parking Behavior Based On Stated Preference Survey Studies.” Journal of Air Transport Management, vol. 58, 2017, pp. 164-175.