In 2019, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) was the third-busiest airport in the world, and that put its parking capacity to the test. Although its Central Terminal Area parking structures can hold more than 8,000 vehicles, those spaces command premium prices and often fill up when business travelers need them most.
Hundreds of airports are harnessing the power of cooperative purchasing for everything from pencils to multimillion-dollar fire trucks to airfield striping services, and they’re enjoying streamlined procurement and often better pricing as a result.
Prior to the COVID pandemic, unprecedented passenger traffic at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) led to increased demand for parking. In 2019, the California airport served more than 15 million passengers and was ranked the fastest-growing airport in the United States.
With passenger traffic on the rise and dated parking facilities straining at the seams, Louisville Muhammad Ali International (SDF) began expanding and upgrading its parking operations in 2019. Since then, the Kentucky airport has invested more than $36 million in new facilities, systems and related projects.
The team that maintains the airfield and operates snow removal equipment at Redmond Municipal Airport (RDM) worked out of a 7,000-square-foot building with modest heavy equipment storage bays. Equipment was stored in several different places across the airfield, some outside. That led leaders at the Oregon airport to invest in a larger facility.
