Denver International Airport said Monday it has selected an employee parking lot south of the main terminal as the future site of a huge rental car garage facility that will help accommodate the airport’s tremendous growth.
The facility, envisioned as a multi-level garage, is still a ways off. DIA’s planning process is expected to ramp up over the course of 2024 with airport officials hoping to put the project out to bid to contractors late next year.
But identifying a location is an important step. DIA officials considered three sites and zeroed in on the employee lot along East 78th Avenue, just north of Peña Boulevard and east of Jackson Gap Road. That lot would be relocated.
In a new release Monday, DIA officials cited the possibility of the facility consolidating all of the airport’s rental car operators on one property. It could be connected to the terminal using some sort of “automated people mover” — a train system or bus route in a dedicated guideway — that also might serve other new parking lots or developments along 78th Avenue, DIA says.
That would eliminate the need for the branded shuttle buses that ferry customers to and from the spread-out rental car lots today.
If the on-airport lots that accommodate the Avis, Enterprise, Fox, Hertz and Sixt rental car operations now were moved, that would open up 160 acres of space for other airport uses and potential commercial development, according to Monday’s release. Other rental agencies have lots off airport property.
“Having a (consolidated rental car facility) will provide much-needed room for growth, a better customer experience and a more sustainable program, especially if coupled with a people-moving solution to eliminate rental car shuttles,” DIA CEO Phil Washington said in the release.
Airport leaders are charting a path forward as DIA’s passenger traffic is projected to reach more than 120 million people per year by 2045. Last year, DIA accommodated 69.3 million passengers, making it the third busiest airport in the United States and the world, with connecting traffic among its major carriers driving much of the growth.
A consolidated rental car garage is viewed as an important part of the equation. DIA officials noted Monday that the airport is the only one out of the top 10 busiest airports in the country that lacks such a facility.
The airport is projected to need 16,130 spaces for rental vehicles to meet passenger demand. That’s a 26% increase over the 12,760 spots it has now, according to officials.
The airport hasn’t released a project budget for the planned facility. But it made a move to supply financing when it increased daily service charges on rental cars to $6 earlier this year, up from $2.15. That increase brought DIA closer to the fees charged at other big hubs such as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport ($7) and Chicago O’Hare International Airport ($8). The fees could rise further to support the project.
Rental car customers in Denver also pay an 11.1% concession recovery fee on their vehicles to cover operators’ contractual obligation to pay 10% of revenue back to the airport.
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