Minneapolis Airport Hikes Shuttle Fees for Parking Companies

An interesting piece of news came out of Minneapolis this week, with the local airport commission voting to double the fee charged to off-airport parking companies when a shuttle bus comes to pick up passengers. The fee will rise from $2.55 to $5.10 by November 2011.

There are some interesting issues here.

First, this of course increases costs for off-airport parking companies. In fact, the companies are not too pleased about this since they believe the rate hike can quickly turn profits into losses. And plus, increased costs for businesses often mean increased prices for consumers.

So why raise the fee? The airport commission says this will help pay for improvements to the airport. Which is probably true - but this article from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune brings up a good point - the commission is also raising the costs of a competitor here. The airport controls its own parking, so if off-site parking gets more expensive, it stands to benefit by potentially gaining customers. Even if that doesn't happen, there's now more revenue coming in from the shuttle buses.

In this case, the airport seems to win no matter what. I really can't find how the traveler comes out ahead in this situation.