Flagstaff City Council Tentatively Approves New Parking Fees At The Flagstaff Airport

Total free parking will be a thing of the past soon at the Flagstaff Airport. The Flagstaff City Council tentatively approved new parking fees Tuesday that will be implemented early next year. The new rates will go into effect January 21st. Parking would be free for the first hour, then two-dollars per hour after the first hour. The city will charge seven-dollars a day in the premium lot and five-dollars a day in the economy lot. Weekly rates will be 42-dollars a week for premium, 30-dollars a week in economy. In July of 2023, per day and per weekly rates will increase. City staff figure paid parking will bring in $365-thousand the first five months. The money will be used for operational expenses, capital improvements and eventually airport operations. Long term parking has been an issue at the airport for years. Some say NAU students are using the free parking to avoid getting a parking pass on campus or at their places of living. Flagstaff Airport Director Barney Helmick says, “we do have a few students parking here. Those we believe are students, we have been checking on with the university. We have not found any that did not fly out.” As for the new fees, Helmick says, “we have gone from 70,000 passengers to 120,000 passengers since the addition of Denver and Dallas and just do not have enough parking. To accommodate this growth we are constructing a new parking lot. We had to borrow $4.9 million to construct this new lot and the parking fees will go toward this debt, as well as covering increased utilities, and hiring additional Park Flag employees to monitor the lot and curbs.” Council will vote for the final time on the new fees at their meeting December 28th.