Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport

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A New Year, A Renewed Attitude

December 22, 2008

In line with its new vision (CHO will be Central Virginia's Airport of Choice) and its new logo, CHO is taking a renewed approach to the community and the passengers it serves. CHO already offers passenger amenities such as 30 minutes of free parking in the short term parking lot for pick-ups and drop-offs, free wireless internet in and around the terminal building, free vehicle jumpstarts, and luggage carts at no cost to the consumer. But, we aren't done yet. We want to know what you want from your airport? What should we improve? What should we consider that other small airports offer? And how can we better serve not only our customers but our community as well? Please take some time and tell us what you think.

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Comments

On Dec 23, 2008 at 12:32AM, TimmyG said:

parking: there’s absolutely no reason for the high daily parking rates. It absolutely kills me when I come back from a week-long trip to end up paying >$50 to keep my car parked at the airport.

I’d take a cab in lieu of parking, but it is a minimum $30 from downtown (each way.) Plus, there are no alternate parking providers like in many cities to counter the high on-airport parking rates.

(I’d gladly take a shuttle from say, Target, to save a few bucks a day.)

Parking is definitely a cost that I factor in when considering where I fly from.

On Dec 23, 2008 at 12:34PM, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

TimmyG, thanks for your comments on ways we can better serve our customers. There are a few things that might be interesting for you to know about our parking rates and how they are derived. First and foremost is that we are completely self funded meaning that no funds from either the City or County are used to operate the airport. We rely strictly on the rental rates of our tenants and the parking revenue to operate.

Also, we constantly monitor other airports, both larger and smaller, to ensure that we are in-line with what the industry is charging. After receiving your comments, I took the opportunity to visit the websites for Dulles, Richmond, and Lynchburg (our closest competitors) and confirmed that for overnight (long-term) parking within similar proximity to the terminal building we charge less than all three of those airports.

Again, we appreciate all constructive comments both complimentary and critical as we attempt to assess our service to our patrons.

On Jan 6, 2009 at 1:07PM, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

Stirling-

Thanks for the comment, but you’re missing the point. The cost of the land used for parking @ IAD is much greater, and therefore the parking (or opportunity cost) should be much greater. IAD’s long term parking is $9/day vs CHO’s $7. Looking at the difference in location/real estate, CHO parking should be something like $3. The other $4 is price gouging/taking advantage of a captive market.

On Jan 14, 2009 at 11:10PM, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

guy Real estate here is as high as anyplace in va for a town this small it sounds like you should take the bus to where you are going not a plane   that way you could cut cost

On Jan 21, 2009 at 11:02AM, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

I think the point is that there are cheaper options at the other airports and that close proximity to the terminal isn’t always a priority for people flying. 

Me, I’d pay a lot for the convenience of not having to drive to RIC, DIA, etc… but rarely find flights from CHO that are anywhere near the same rates as elsewhere.

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