From Car to Curb to Plane?

It was a good day to ask Martin Ritter of Lakewood whether he’d favor the ultimate car-culture luxury at John Wayne Airport: curbside valet parking.

Ritter, who works near the airport, zipped over to pick up a colleague Tuesday and found “lot full” signs blocking every terminal garage and lot. He found space at the long-term lot across the San Diego Freeway and, 20 minutes later, was back where he began.

“I only wanted to pick someone up and I couldn’t even find temporary parking,” Ritter said. “If you’re pressed for time, [valet parking] would sure be nice.”

Airport officials next week will ask Orange County supervisors to make John Wayne the second airport in Southern California to feature on-site valet parking. Burbank Airport has offered valet service at its terminal for 10 years.

The concept has been considered at Los Angeles International Airport, officials there said, but hasn’t been pursued because of tight space and the logistical nightmare of creating central or multiple drop-off locations at the airport’s seven terminals.

Nonetheless, about a dozen airports elsewhere in the country have added curbside valet service in the past decade, including Oakland; Las Vegas; Denver; Reno-Tahoe; San Francisco; Seattle; Detroit; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Detroit; Boston; Baltimore; Minneapolis; and Washington, D.C.

The valet option still is conceptual, but airport officials hope it will be a winner with time-pressed passengers at John Wayne Airport, about 60% of whom are business travelers.

“A lot of our customers have told us they want it,” airport director Alan Murphy said.

Local officials are toying with two plans, both of which would have passengers turn over their cars to valets at the front of John Wayne Airport’s upper terminal deck. Upon return, passengers would either have their cars delivered to the terminal or hop on a special shuttle where their car would be waiting at a designated spot in the long-term lot.

Cost has yet to be determined, but would be added to regular parking fees. Parking is $7 in the remote lot across the freeway and $11 a day in one of four covered structures nearest the terminal.

The airport offered a valet-type service during a one-year project to add 2,000 parking spaces, allowing passengers to drop off and retrieve their cars at a designated spot in the long-term lot for an additional $5 a day. The service ended several months ago when usage sagged.

“We think there’s still an interest if it’s a better service,” Murphy said.

At Burbank, passengers drop off and pick up their cars at a kiosk across from the terminal. The cost is $18 a day, compared to $8 a day for self-parking in the airport’s uncovered remote lots, and $24 a day for covered self-parking.

The service started in 1990 with 50 cars a day, and has grown to 750 cars a day, said Roy Zokae, who has managed Valet Parking Service for seven years.

“More airports are going that way,” he said of valet service. “Space is so limited and they don’t want to build more parking garages.”

John Wayne Airport has about 6,000 parking spaces, with 2,000 spaces added in May 1999. Parking is scarce at the terminal from Tuesdays through Fridays, officials said. LAX has about 21,000 parking spaces.

Orange County Supervisor Tom Wilson said he’s intrigued by the idea of valet parking at John Wayne. During a celebration in September honoring the 10-year anniversary of the Thomas F. Riley Terminal, named for a Wilson predecessor on the board, about 100 cars were valet parked and the system worked well, he said.

The idea was appealing to other John Wayne Airport passengers Tuesday. Several said they wouldn’t use valet service for every trip but favored the option if they were running late.

“Time is money,” said Julie Stegman, who works at Hewlett Packard in Anaheim.