Sacramento airport parking rates going up July 1

With gas prices spiraling and freeway closures ahead for Interstate 5, getting out to Sacramento International Airport this summer will be tough enough.

Add this to the pain: Beginning July 1, you'll pay $2 to $3 a day more for airport parking.

Sacramento County officials say it's for a good cause. The money will help finance the biggest expansion in airport history, including a four-story central terminal and a second, multilevel garage.

The fees follow a smaller hike when the current garage was built in 2004.

• The daily maximum fee for upper floors of the airport's Terminal A garage will jump from $12 to $15.

• The daily cost to park at the Terminal B surface lots will increase from $10 to $13.

• The daily rate at the economy lot goes from $7 to $9.

• Officials said they were uncertain what the hour-by-hour rates would be, but parking will remain free for the first half-hour on the lower floor of the parking garage.

Sacramento's new rates remain lower than those at the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose airports, officials said.

The supervisors unanimously approved hikes Tuesday, but some sounded queasy Tuesday when the airport's Lisa Stanton said additional hikes are planned for 2012 and 2014.

Some close-in parking at Terminal B will be destroyed this summer when the new terminal construction project begins.

"You not only get to pay more, but you get to park farther away; what a deal!" Supervisor Roger Dickinson said. Nevertheless, Dickinson said, he supports the airport's plan.

The July fee hike should increase airport parking revenue by about $10 million, officials said.

Travelers at the airport Tuesday had mixed reactions to the coming rate hike.

"They need to expand," said Robert Willis of Weaverville. "They need to make it easier to get in and out."

But Michelle Trueblood of Roseville was not pleased.

"I avoid parking here as much as possible," she said. "I just arrange for someone to pick me up."

This summer, it could be tough to even get to the airport.

The state Department of Transportation plans to close portions of I-5 downtown for rehabilitation work during much of June and July. There is no train service to the airport and Sacramento Regional Transit buses don't go there. Yolo County Transit provides hourly buses between the airport and downtown Sacramento and several Yolo County cities.

Airport officials said they need to increase parking costs because the county's general fund, which is in the red, does not fund airport operations or the planned $1.27 billion expansion.

To feed that fund, airport officials say they also intend to increase the fee on each airline ticket, from $4.50 to $6, in the next few years.

The bulk of airport expansion funds will come from increased fees airline companies pay to use the airport. Airlines ultimately could pay nearly half the expansion costs.

Several airlines, led by major user Southwest, oppose the fee increase, saying the airport expansion doesn't need to be as big.

"We are disappointed," American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said. "The new terminal exceeds the foreseeable needs of the airlines going forward."

Airport head Hardy Acree has countered that Sacramento's facility needs to keep pace with Northern California growth, and that airlines benefiting from increased ridership must pay a fair share.

"We've taken the approach we build what is needed, and the costs are what they are," Acree said.

Expansion work is expected to begin in August with demolition of the airport hotel and closure of part of the surface parking lot at Terminal B, which houses United, American, Continental and Northwest airlines, among others.

A new terminal will replace Terminal B. It is expected to open by 2011, and will connect to a remote boarding concourse by a tram-like people mover.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.