Airport 'free' parking to be reduced

Free parking limits have been reduced at Hawke's Bay Airport. Photo File

Hawke's Bay Airport has announced it's cutting its 'free' parking time.

From tomorrow the parking time will be reduced from 30mins to 15mins to "ease parking congestion and ensure public safety".

In a statement released today the airport said the move comes four months after a new parking tariff structure was put into place to accommodate necessary changes while the terminal redevelopment is undertaken.

At this time free parking was increased from 15minutes to 30 minutes but the increase in 'dwell' time had put significant pressure on car parking capacity.

Hawke's Bay Airport operations manager, Gareth Mentzer, said the reason it
increased the free parking time was to improve "the operational efficiency of our pickup
and drop-off area during the redevelopment of the airport's terminal."

"This area became a no waiting zone, so to accommodate this we increased the free parking time," Mentzer said.

"We've been closely monitoring the flow and impact of the parking facilities over the
last four months and unfortunately the change hasn't had the outcome we
anticipated. Instead we have had a significant increase in congestion within the car
park, especially at peak times."

He said in the interest of public safety the congestion needed to be
alleviated so the decision was made to reduce the free parking time back to
15minutes.

"This should still provide sufficient time for the majority of people dropping
off or picking up visitors to not incur a charge while at the same time improve the
parking turnover."

In September the airport introduced a flat rate parking fee across both the main and
secure carpark of $15 per day for the first five days and then $10 per day thereafter.

Car parking rates will be:

First 15 minutes Free
15 mins – 1 hour $3
1 hour – 2 hours $6
2 hours – 3 hours $9
3 hours – 4 hours $12
4 hours – 1 day $15
Days 2-5 $15/day
Days 5+ $10/da