DFW Airport to raise terminal parking rates March 1

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport will raise some of its parking rates next month after fixing issues with its automated parking system.

Starting March 1, DFW will charge $2 to park for up to 30 minutes, $1 if the driver uses a TollTag. Now, drivers are charged $2 for up to eight minutes but only $1 if they are in the parking area from eight to 30 minutes. Under the new rates, there will be no zero-to-eight-minute price.

Rates will increase by $1 to $3 for parking between 30 minutes and two hours, $2 for TollTag users. Valet parking rates will increase by $2 to $27 per day.

Rates for the remote and express lots, as well as terminal parking for more than two hours, will remain the same.

The airport had planned to implement the rate increases Oct. 1, but the staff delayed them when the new parking system was not reading TollTags correctly at entry and exit plazas last fall. Generating more revenue from parking and concessions is part of a long-term plan to help finance the airport’s $2 billion terminal renovation project.

“We are fully operational and functional, and the experience that our customers are experiencing is extremely positive going in and out of the plazas,” Ken Buchanan, the airport’s executive vice president of revenue management, told the DFW board at a committee meeting Tuesday. “Now is the perfect time to move forward with our rate increase.”

The airport expects the increases to generate an additional $1.86 million in parking revenue. Buchanan said DFW plans to reassess all its parking products in May.

The board approved the rate changes last summer as part of its annual budget.

This story was originally published February 4, 2014 at 6:15 PM with the headline "DFW Airport to raise terminal parking rates March 1."