Colorado Springs Airport Offers Innovative Parking Memberships

When Colorado Springs Airport (COS) took a close look at its services during a 2020 branding exercise, it learned a lot of interesting things. One key finding was that many travelers who were airport lounge members used the membership’s parking component more than they used the lounge itself.

“That gave us the hint,” says COS Aviation Director Greg Phillips. “We figured out that the parking was something that people valued.” And that spurred action. The result was ParkCOS, an annual membership program that may be the first of its kind at any U.S. airport.

The paperless, cashless system is designed to enhance convenience and save frequent flyers money by providing a year’s worth of intermittent parking for a fixed annual price. There are four tiers of memberships for the app-based system. Two cover parking in the airport’s long-term lot—$280 per year for individuals or $425 per year for households of two adults. The two other tiers are for valet parking—at $595 for individuals or $890 for households (again, two adults).

The new program launched on May 1 this year, and about 400 travelers had signed up for memberships by mid-July. Aidan Ryan, marketing and communications manager at COS, reports that individual self-park memberships have been the most popular option, accounting for nearly 57% of initial signups.

We’re Not Denver

The innovative parking program is one way the airport defines its niche in the Colorado marketplace. Located about 70 miles south of Denver, COS lives in the shadow of Denver International (DEN), one of the busiest airports in the world. “How do we compare and compete with that?” asks Phillips. “Well, we don’t.”

Instead, COS focuses on the advantages of being a smaller airport with about 1.2 million annual enplanements (vs. DEN’s 77.8 million). In particular, it highlights convenience, ease of access and lower prices. “We find that people like that,” says Phillips. “People want that.”

In part, industrywide fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for COS to fundamentally examine its services and identity. “We took a good hard look at who we are and what makes us the kind of airport that people want to use,” Phillips explains. That exercise, led by the airport’s creative agency at the time, yielded a new branding concept, “Colorado’s Small Airport.” It also shed light on parking and lounge usage that eventually sparked the idea for ParkCOS years later.

A Range of Change

While the rebranding effort and ParkCOS are separate initiatives, they both signal change at the small, city-owned airport. Significant facility improvements are also occurring, via a three-year concourse modernization project called ElevateCOS. In addition to new gates, ceilings and floors, restrooms and a food court, the multi-phase program includes a new passenger lounge that will be operated by Global Lounge Network.

For a decade, COS had operated its own Premier Lounge, but increasing enplanements and ongoing staffing and food preparation challenges prompted the airport to try another approach. The old lounge closed this March (2024), and in June, Global Lounge Network took over an empty “white box” space closer to the concourse entrance. The new facility—named The Lounge, Colorado Springs—is expected to open later this year.

With the redesigned lounge comes a redesigned membership structure. Lounge and parking privileges are now packaged separately to meet customer needs with more precision. The airport listened and responded to what it heard from travelers, Ryan explains. For instance, many of the original lounge members requested a valet parking option, so that was added to the ParkCOS program.

Nuts and Bolts

The airport’s IT, Marketing, Operations and Property teams worked together to plan and implement the new parking memberships. Also involved: Republic Parking, which manages the airport’s parking facilities, and TEZ Technology, a software provider that Republic uses at various locations around the United States.

Republic brought together technicians from the airport and TEZ to integrate a TEZ app called SMSValet into the airport’s parking membership program. The app allows travelers to click a text link to check in, pay for valet service and schedule their vehicle to be waiting at the valet stand upon their return.

Customers use a digital membership card issued by the airport plus a photo ID (typically a driver’s license) to verify membership when they pull up to the valet stand or exit a long-term lot. “The owner of the membership has to be driving or be present in the vehicle at the time of validation,” notes Ryan.

Members who self-park pull tickets like other customers when entering the long-term lot. After returning to the airport, however, they simply present their ticket, digital membership card and photo ID when exiting through a staffed lane. “Essentially, their ticket gets validated,” Ryan explains. The membership program uses the long-term lot because the 800 spaces in the airport’s short-term lot tend to fill up.

Valet members are enrolled in a backend system called Super Client, which stores their name, telephone number and email. Valet members enter, or are in a vehicle that enters, the airport’s departure-level valet lane. There, an attendant welcomes them, verifies their membership and enters their flight information, which triggers a text notification that allows them to request their vehicle upon return and receive status updates via text messages.

Both long-term and valet memberships allow parking for up to 90 consecutive days with no additional charges.

Bill Mayo, regional vice president for Republic Parking, notes that even though the company had not previously used TEZ’s valet app with an airport parking membership program, getting it integrated and running as a component of ParkCOS went smoothly. “No problems at all,” he reports. “The app is very solutions based, so there were no issues.”

The other key step was setting up a platform to sell memberships, and the city’s Business Solutions team idenitifed a mobile app called ClubExpress. Visit coloradosprings.gov/parkCOS to check out the interface.

Growth Potential

While plenty of airports have parking reward programs, Phillips and Ryan are unaware of any others with an annual membership program like ParkCOS. It’s still too early to determine if the new format will increase parking revenue, but the airport incentivized early participation by offering existing Premier Lounge members discounted ParkCOS memberships.

“Estimating customer behavior is tricky, especially as we grow,” says Ryan. (Enplanements at COS were up 10% last year vs. 2022.) “We might be pleasantly surprised with more memberships as people learn about them.”

As she sees it, ParkCOS could boost one of the airport’s largest non-aeronautical revenue streams while also providing a great service to members.

The concept is already attracting interest within the industry. Several airport directors have approached Phillips at recent conferences and other gatherings to ask about the new program.

Whatever potential new service or feature is on the table for other airport leaders, Phillips advises them to think about what they would like when traveling—ways to make the experience less stressful and more enjoyable. He also recommends staying focused on your airport and its unique benefits. “Emphasize those things,” he suggests.

That formula seems to have worked for COS and its new parking membership program. “We’re super-happy about how it’s going and how it’s been accepted and appreciated by the community,” says Phillips.

But he doesn’t consider ParkCOS the be-all and end-all. “We just continue to look for more things like that.”

Another recent success: In March, the airport debuted a live music program called flyTunes. About twice a week, COS features a local act from various musical genres. In addition to enriching the travel experience for guests, the program is fueling engagement with the community. So far, more than 150 acts have expressed interest in performing at the airport.