Port Authority’s new off-site parking lot fee may raise rates for travelers at Kennedy, LaGuardia
Travelers who park at cheap, independent lots right outside the airport don’t want to see the Port Authority spoil the bargain.
The PA, which operates Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports, demanded in March that off-site lot owners pay an “annual fee” of $200 per parking space to the PA, their biggest competitor, the Daily News reported Sunday.
But that fee could be enough to destroy some merchants, who offer inexpensive alternatives to the airport’s large garages. Patrons fear the PA’s money grab will force operators to raise rates.
“Customers might choose not to use that service anymore,” Jose Villavicencio, a patron of off-site lot SmartPark JFK, said of possible increases.
“That’s a lot of money. That’s ridiculous,” Villavicencio, 48, from Woodside, Queens, added.
“They’re going to kill business because customers wouldn’t like paying extra,” Henry Ortiz, a manager at AviStar, another off-site facility at JFK, said Sunday.
Scott Stallings, 38, of Philadelphia, said he’d keep using AviStar – even if prices go up. “I’m sure it would still be a better deal than the airport,” Stallings said.
The PA, which says it is working to reach an equitable solution, argues that it’s only fair to spread the costs of operating the airport to businesses that use the airport.
Many of these lot owners now support a fee based on the number of seats on the buses they shuttle from the lots to the airport – and not a flat payment tied to the amount of parking spaces on their private properties.
“We cut it pretty close as is,” said Mike Moreland, vice president of Air Park in Newark. “It’s not like we’re all millionaires out here.”
JFK Long Term Parking 
I totally agree with Villavicencio, it is way too much and it is ridiculous!! How could they raise prices now with the way the economy is right now?? They are definitely going to loose customers!