Despite a one-year respite from consecutive record-breaking numbers of travelers passing through the gates of Fresno-Yosemite International Airport, it appears that air travel is at record levels.
Some credit is owed to Fresno’s latest aviation addition: Southwest Airlines and its lineup of flights to Denver and Las Vegas.
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But airport officials, who are deep in the first phase of an airport expansion to accommodate more flights, and passengers, are making moves to prepare for the influx in travel.
Good News: Easier parking options are on the horizon
Months of construction at Fresno-Yosemite’s surface lot is beginning to come into focus, as the airport’s highly-promoted, four-floor parking garage is five months away from completion.
The garage adds 917 parking spots to the airport facility that had run thin on parking options pre-pandemic.
Currently, Fresno flyers are splitting parking between the long-term parking lot, which is currently two-thirds of its original size due to construction on the garage.
The other option for parking? An economy lot located southeast of the airport concourse near McKinley Avenue, near the relocated cell phone waiting area.
Not-So-Good News: Parking rates are going up
While the days of limited parking options are quickly passing by, Fresno’s dirt-cheap daily parking are starting to creep upwards, too.
Two weeks ago, Fresno’s City Council approved a request to increase the cost of its long-term surface lots – and, strangely – a decrease in the cost for garage parking.
Currently, parking in the long-term lot is $12 per day. With the fee increase approved, that rate will jump to $14 per day.
The airports division is unifying the cost of parking across the long-term surface lot and the to-be-completed parking garage at the $14 per day rate.
Prior to the vote, the rate for covered garage parking (which presently doesn’t exist) was set at $15 per day.
So how does Fresno’s proposed airport parking rates stack up with other California international airports?
San Francisco (SFO): $45 daily (valet), $36 per day (Domestic/International Garages), $18 per day (Long-Term Garage, Lot)
Los Angeles (LAX): $40 per day
Oakland (OAK): $38 per day (Premier), $24 per day (daily)
San Diego (SAN): $32 per day (Terminal 1 and 2 Lots)
San Jose (SJC): $24 per day (Terminal B garage, Daily Lot 5), $18 per day (Terminal A garage, Daily Lot 4)
Long Beach (LGB): $24 per day (valet), $19 per day (Lot A), $17 (Lot B)
Sacramento (SMF): $18 per day (covered garage), $12 per day (daily lot)
