Sacramento airport may soon charge more for parking. Here’s the county’s plan
As air travel numbers rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation soars to new heights, county officials say they plan to increase parking prices at Sacramento International Airport beginning next year.
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on whether to authorize an increase of up to 5% per year over the next five years, with the first hike set to kick Jan. 1.
It would be the first parking rate increase at the airport in more than five years.
The current daily maximums at Sacramento International Airport are $29 for the hourly lot, $18 for garage parking, $12 for the daily lot and $10 for the economy lot. The county-operated airport last increased the garage parking rate by $1 an hour in May 2017; the other three rates have been in place since 2012.
Under the proposed increases, the daily maximum would increase at the hourly lot from its current $29 to $30.50 next year, then rise by $1.75 per year through 2026, and by $2 from 2026 to 2027 to bring the new maximum to $37.75.
The garage maximum would go to $19 next year and as high as $23.50 by 2027; the daily lot from $12.75 in 2023 to $15.75 in 2027; and the economy lot from $10.50 to $13.50 in the same stretch.
The parking increases would serve to keep pace with inflation and to help fund several improvement projects, most of them related to parking and ground transportation at the airport, according to a county staff report attached to Tuesday’s meeting agenda item.
The report also notes that recent construction projects and parking lot repavings have limited parking spaces at the airport, leaving availability “scarce” during high demand.
“The Department (of Airports) expects passenger levels and parking demand to remain strong, thus SMF may run out of parking during the 2022 holiday season,” the report says.
The airport’s recently unveiled “SMForward” improvement endeavors — which include a new parking garage, a new pedestrian walkway at Terminal B, and rehabilitation and expansion of existing economy lots — are projected to cost more than $372 million. Those projects, laid out in an update to the county’s airport master plan that was approved by the Board of Supervisors this February, are expected to be completed by 2025.
The county agenda item says that parking makes up most of the airport’s non-airline revenue: 54% of non-airline revenue and 31% of its overall operating revenue last fiscal year.
Airport parking currently generates $65 million annually, and the 5% increase would generate an additional $47 million over the next five years, according to the agenda item.
The report also says current parking rates at the airport garages are 15% lower than comparable lots in downtown Sacramento, with surface lots nearly 20% lower.
New car rental fees
In a separate item on Tuesday’s agenda, the board will also vote on whether to authorize an $8 per-transaction-day fee to be collected from rental car companies at the airport, which would effectively triple the amount now collected by the county.
Currently, the county takes in a $10 fee on each rental transaction by rental companies based at the airport. Switching to a per-day fee system would more than triple the fee per transaction: the average length of a car rental at the airport is about four days, according to the agenda report, so charging $8 per transaction day would increase the fee per transaction to about $32 from the current $10.
The revenues from the fee increase would go toward the construction of a consolidated rental car facility at Sacramento International Airport, which the county estimates would cost $390 million.
If authorized, the fee change would also go into effect at the beginning of 2023.
