Parking at TIA will cost more

Part of the increase is intended to discourage abuse of the valet parking service.

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 7, 2000

TAMPA -- The board of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority voted Thursday to raise parking rates at Tampa International Airport next month, with the biggest change scheduled for the popular, 18-month-old valet service.

Messengers, delivery people and others with brief business at the airport have been clogging the valet system, using it as a cheap way to ditch their vehicles and avoid parking illegally by a curb.

"Somebody has to write up the car, drive it upstairs, park it, come back downstairs, and half an hour later the owner leaves with it. That's not the purpose of valet parking," said Crosby Few, chairman of the authority board.

In an effort to reserve valet parking for passengers late for their flights and people picking up or seeing off travelers, the board voted to slap a minimum charge of $5 on the valet service.

Those who stayed at the airport only briefly have been paying $2 per half hour to a maximum of $14 a day for valet service. When the new rates go into effect, the price will be $2 per half hour with a $5 minimum to a maximum of $16 a day.

The opening of a new remote parking lot at the south end of the airport, expected about Aug. 15, will trigger the new rates. The remote lot, to be served by buses, will cost $6 a day and $30 a week.

Short-term parking rates now are $1 per half hour to a maximum $9 a day for the first two days and $12 a day thereafter. That first 48-hour "discount" will disappear when the new lot arrives. Long-term parking rates of $1 per half hour to a daily maximum of $8 will not change.

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