December 15, 2005

Worcester Mag Story

Page 5 of WoMag, great story by Scott Zoback updating us on parking, concessions and Airport Drive. You be the judge as to how prepared we are? Only good news is Airport Chairman Bob Nemeth is going to "push" to make sure Airport Drive is fixed.

Today I picked up the proposal from LAZ to handle the parking. Although this company seems to have a great reputation (this is no reflection on them), but this whole idea to charge for parking is completely ridiculous. The parking lot will only be staffed 20 hours per week at a cost of $29.90 per hour or $598/wk which is $2,591 per monthly (although the bid stated this was $2,392 per month which would be right if there were only 48 weeks in the year).

If we get 14 weekly parkers at 42 per week then we break even. We will need to monitor the profitability of the lot, but how much can we possibly make initially when there are only two flights per week with a $598/wk overhead. The airport commission targets a profit of $12,000 to $15,000, looks to me that the only who will make out here is LAZ parking who will make $31,092.

More importantly there are service questions:

  1. What if someone arrives early before anyone is working the stipulated 20 hours per week?
  2. If you prepay for a day or week, but decide to stay longer and your ticket expires, what happens? According to Airport Liaison Niddrie in WoMag today "cars will not be towed, patrons overstaying their welcome will be asked to speak to an attendant. We want to make sure Worcester Airportis well-received." Why pay for a week, pay for a day, leave your car as long as you want, you will not be towed...
  3. Let me ask again what if you park your car in the Worcester State shuttle lot, how will anyone know???

Between the Airport Drive and the fact we do not have enought flights initially to justify a full-time parking lot attendant, why are we even bothering with this system hiring someone 20 hours per week to hang prepaid tags that mean nothing, since you will not be towed.. Drop the parking charges now, wait till we get more flights to justify a full-time professional system.

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