You may have a harder time than usual parking at Sacramento airport. Here’s ‘what gives’

The charm of Sacramento International Airport — like the city itself — is its laid-back nature, shorter lines and less stress.

But at least one frequent traveler finds herself recently confused by a noticeable lack of parking.

Sandra Giarde’s job requires her to travel more than the average person. She’s been flying in and out of Sacramento since 1995. Lately, she’s noticed less parking availability, and just last week, she opted to call an Uber — which can cost more than a weekend parking in the garage.

Giarde asked The Sacramento Bee’s service journalism team: “what gives?” As it turns out, there is something behind her observation.

“Nobody wants to spend 20 minutes driving around the parking garage like you’re hunting for a parking spot on Black Friday,” Giarde said.

Why is it harder to find SMF parking right now?

More people are traveling, at least compared to last year, and recent construction has closed down more than 2,000 spaces in an economy lot.

Overall travel — domestic and international combined — from January to July increased 41.3% over last year, according to official passenger statistics. That includes arriving and departing passengers.

Additionally, Scott Johnston, an airport spokesman, said SMF is currently paving 2,143 spaces in the East Economy Lot.

With the holidays closely approaching, SMF will continue to see more travelers, but Johnston expects the construction on the East Economy Lot to be completed before then.

“The project is projected to be done on/before November 1st pending no delays,” Johnston said in an email to The Bee. “All parking lots will be done with construction activates before the holiday season.”

Where can I park at Sacramento airport?

SMF has five parking areas. The Sacramento airport website offers real-time parking capacity at all structures to help travelers prepare. The rule of thumb when parking at SMF is to buffer a decent amount of time if you want to get the cheapest daily overnight rate.

All five lots share the same hourly rate of $2 per half hour — but daily rates vary.

The Hourly Parking lot sits across from Terminal B where domestic flights from airlines including Southwest, Frontier and JetBlue run. The daily maximum at the Hourly Garage is the most expensive and will run you $29 per day.

The Parking Garage across from Terminal A serves Air Canada, American, United and Delta airlines. The daily maximum at this lot will run you $18 a day.

The Daily Lot is situated right behind the Terminal A parking garage has a daily maximum of $12. West Economy Parking is the farthest lot at the airport with the lowest daily maximum of $10 a day. Both garages have shuttle services that drop off travelers at both Terminals A and B every 10 to 15 minutes.

East Economy Parking, which has more than 2,000 spots under construction, is also a maximum of $10 a day.

In the event that the airport parking lots hit capacity, Johnston specified that there are 1,000 spaces of overflow parking available.

Cash is accepted at walk-up parking lot kiosks, not lot cashier booths as of November 2021.

This story was originally published September 27, 2022 at 7:00 AM.