Higher Parking Fees Annoy Drivers, Please Airport

“You’ve got to be kidding, this is absolutely asinine,” Hal Sandler said after he pulled his car up to the booth at Burbank Airport’s central parking structure and handed the attendant his ticket.

“Nope, that’ll be $26,” the attendant replied.

Sandler, part-owner of a Sunland chemical manufacturing plant who flies in and out of Burbank Airport every week, was furious. He said he made overnight trips to San Francisco every week and knew quite well that parking in the main lot cost $8 a day.

The attendant, in a well-memorized speech, explained to Sandler that, since Sept. 27, parking in the central structure still cost $1 an hour, but the maximum rate had gone up to $24 a day.

Spaces Now Available

Every day, for three weeks now, similar scenes have taken place at the exit of Burbank Airport’s central parking structure. As the battle rages between irate airport customers and weary parking attendants, airport officials maintain that their efforts to create short-term parking at the busy commuter airport have succeeded.

Alan G. Hyde, chief of airport operations, said people who go the airport to drop off relatives or pick up friends can now find short-term parking at the 400-space central parking structure. He said the airport has received few complaints since tripling the daily rate.

But parking-lot attendants and angry customers tell another story.

One attendant, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, said that, when the rates went up in late September, about half the motorists who passed by his booth were caught off guard by the steep new rates and complained bitterly.

10 Surprised Customers a Day

These days, the attendant said, he gets about 10 people a day who don’t realize they are liable for up to $24 a day in parking fees.

Sometimes it can get sticky for employees who are merely carrying out airport policy.

Generally, attendants say, they just shrug off the threats and profanity as part of the job.

“I don’t blame anyone, it can be confusing,” one attendant said, referring to the myriad signs at the lot entrances that motorists often don’t bother reading.

3,800 Parking Spaces

The airport, run by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, has 3,800 parking spaces scattered over five lots. Two are remote lots that charge $4 a day and are served by shuttle buses.

Lots on either side of the central parking structure are within walking distance of the terminals and charge $8 a day. It is only in the centrally located, enclosed parking structure that fees have tripled.

As a result, the four-story structure, which used to be full each day, is now crowded only on the first level.

Despite a publicity campaign waged by the Airport Authority to spread the word about the fees, and many signs warning the unwary of the $24-a-day maximum, some travelers still get stung.

Arturo Ocampo of New York was informed of the rate Thursday by a reporter as he walked out of the parking structure to catch a flight to San Francisco with three friends.

‘That’s Outrageous’

“I think that’s outrageous,” he said, heading back to his car to find a less expensive lot.

Some people don’t seem to mind shelling out a lot of money to park in the convenient central location, according to attendants.

“I’ve had a few $70 tickets--businessmen, in nice cars, who knew and didn’t care” about the high rates, an attendant said.

But then there was the little old lady with poor vision who went on a short trip and was saddled with a $128 parking fee upon her return.

Attendants said the woman was able to bargain for a lower fee because airport officials felt her vision problem was a plausible excuse for not noticing the signs.

Rate Bargaining

Airport officials are willing to listen to individual problems and said they will adjust parking rates if they feel a customer has a legitimate complaint.

“We’re not here to gouge you in parking,” Hyde said Thursday as he attempted to placate an angry customer.

The customer was Hal Sandler, the businessman with the $26 overnight parking fee. After Sandler stormed into Hyde’s office Thursday morning and told his story, Hyde smiled professionally and said that Burbank Airport would take care of the problem.

Sandler paid his $8 and left.