KENNER -- It’s a sign of the times at Louis Armstrong International Airport: the unwelcome lot-full sign.
More and more often airport officials have had to turn away passengers looking for a spot after all the garages and parking lots have reached capacity.
But help is on the way, they say, in the form of thousands of new spots coming to the new $1 billion terminal under construction.
Once the terminal opens in February 2019, the number of parking spaces will increase from 5,600 to 8,000.
The new terminal will include a short-term garage with 2,190 spaces. The new long-term garage will include 2,750 spaces, while a surface lot will include another 685 spots.
The current long-term garage will be used as an “economy lot” with 2,438 spaces. A shuttle will move passengers between the garage and new terminal.
Airport spokeswoman Erin Bruns said the number of passengers has at times overwhelmed the spaces the airport has right now, especially during the busy summer travel months. The new number of parking spots, she said, should be “well over what we need to support future growth.”
A study the airport undertook when planning the new terminal determined it should have enough parking for 7,000 vehicles. Burns said the airport’s operators chose to add another 1,000 spots.
The airport saw a record number of travelers in 2017 when it welcome more than 12 million people.
Since that number continues to increase each year, Burns said, a master plan will be undertaken to determine what expansion the airport should undertake between the next 10 and 20 years.
“If the day comes where we determine that an additional concourse is needed or we need to add gates to the facility, all those things will be planned out and mapped out in the master plan,” Burns said.
In the meantime, passengers worried about parking problems should keep an eye on the airports website and Facebook and Twitter pages, where staff will post alerts if there is no parking available.
“We just ask the public to be patient with us” as construction continues, Burns said.
Danny Monteverde can be reached at danny@wwltv.com.