August 27, 2006

AIrport This Morning

Picked up my brother-in-law at ORH today. Although he lives in Boca, we convinced him to drive the 2-3 hours to Sanford. Better to drive 2-3 easy hour in Florida then having to battle with Boston. Ironically enough he is catching the last flight Sept 3rd back to Florida. He said Allegiant was great, the flight was ahead of schedule and the convenience of both Sanford and ORH is awesome. Did you know Sanford gets 6 flights per day from the UK?

One baffling thing today, however,was the parking. I entered the parking lot and explained to the attendant that I was just picking up. Real nice guy told me to park, take my time and have a nice day. After I returned to my car, I went to the exit gate preparing to tell the attendant how I was just picking up but nobody was there. Sitting there confused, the gate opened and I drove away.

This got me to thinking. What is someone else had left their car for the week, proceeded to their car and simply drove through the exit gate like I did??? I am going to get some final numbers on the parking this week.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

With no more flights out of the terminal after September 3rd, is the parking lot attendants/service being terminated/laid off. If so The attendant could probably care less about collecting fees.

Besides , parking should have been free from the beginning and advertised as such. Monies from the Small Communities Air Service Grant should have been set aside to offset to lost revenue base from parking

Anonymous said...

I've been up there. You pay as you go in if you are staying. He asks you how long and you pay at that point. It actually worked well. When I arrived back, I just drove out. If you are dropping off there is no charge. That's nice too. Other airports get at least a few bucks to see your family off!

Bill Randell said...

Ron:

You sound like a very honest guy, but this is no way to run a business, especially when the net proceeds after paying LAZ Parking is suppose to go to the City of Worcester.

Bill

Joe Gargery said...

They originally said they would give you a tag to hang on your rear-view-mirror.

If you're still there the next day, and have no tag on your rear-view-mirror, you'll probably get to pay Commissioner Santa Maria for the luxury of retreiving your car.

Joe Gargery said...

For the non-locals, Pat Santa Maria, one of the Airport Commissioners, also owns Pats Towing, one of the largest towing operations in the city.

I doubt Pats got the contract from the Airport. In fact, I believe Commissioner Santa Maria opposed paid parking.

Bill Randell said...

Charley:

The airport told me that they were not going to tow any cars. It was based on the honor system.

Bill

Anonymous said...

Forgot to mention, they do give you something to put on your windshield. The attendant told me that he checks them every day as do the security people. If I stayed longer than my time noted, they would put another tag to see the attendant.

Bill Randell said...

Ron:

I do not know why I am getting into this since Allegiant has left and the parking will be free again but...

Lets just say I had told the attendant that I was staying for a week, paid the weekly fee, hung a tag stating I will be back a week from today and stayed three weeks. Upon my return to ORH after a long flight, I grab my bags, walk to my car and then am suppose to look for the guy at the entrance gate and pay him for two weeks. On the other hand I could just jump in my car and drive out the exit.

If I ran my businesses like this, I would be out of business in 3 months.

Anonymous said...

Guy Glodis would love this honor system that the ORH parking lot seems to have.

Joe Gargery said...

Bill said:

"If I ran my businesses like this, I would be out of business in 3 months. "

You must be a lousy businessman. It took Worcester nine months.

Anonymous said...

But Charlie, Worc gets a $1,000,000 annual subsidy from Boston so they should have lasted 9 yrs, not 9 months :)

Joe Gargery said...

Score one for Bill. I don't think he could burn through $1,000,000 in three months.