Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport adding 232 parking spaces

Facility hopes to finish new lot in time for start of United's twice-daily nonstop flights to New York, Chicago

People wait for a press conference to unveil a high-definition live video stream from the Tennessee Aquarium in the lobby at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport on Tuesday, Mar. 29, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
People wait for a press conference to unveil a high-definition live video stream from the Tennessee Aquarium in the lobby at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport on Tuesday, Mar. 29, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

We're pretty much at the limits of what we can expect people to walk.

Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport will add 232 parking spaces in a new satellite parking lot on Airport Road across from the Greyhound station - and officials hope to finish before United Airlines starts to offer in September its new, twice-daily nonstop flights from Chattanooga to the New York City area and to Chicago.

"We keep growing," John Naylor, the airport's vice president of planning and development, told the airport's board of directors at its meeting Monday afternoon before it approved the expansion.

photo The ticketing and baggage check area is photographed at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport on Tuesday, Mar. 29, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The parking lot will be paved, fenced and lit at night, airport officials said. Security cameras will be installed at the unmanned lot, which will be served by a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, free shuttle bus.

The airport will move its 100 parking spaces for employees to the new satellite parking lot, airport President Terry Hart said.

The shuttle bus will need to come frequently, and the parking lot will need to feel safe - or the airport can expect "lots of complaints," board member Farzana Mitchell warned.

The shuttle shouldn't take more than six or seven minutes to arrive, Hart said.

United Airlines will fly 50-seat Embraer regional jets starting Sept. 7 from Chattanooga to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

That will let Chattanooga business people make round trips in a day to Chicago and New York, airport President Terry Hart said.

If United Airlines fills its flights, it would add 200 fliers a day, Naylor said, and increase the demand for parking by that much. Even if the flights are half full, that's still 100 additional passengers a day at the airport, he said.

The airport currently has about 1,700 parking spaces, Naylor said. So the 232 new spaces will bring it close to 2,000 parking spaces, total.

There's room for another 513 parking spaces on the empty land on Airport Road where the 232 new spaces will go, Naylor said - or about 745 potential new parking spaces, total.

Looking ahead, the airport may build all 745 parking spaces on Airport Road.

That would help, airport officials said, if the airport ever decides it is economically feasible to build its first-ever parking structure, because passengers could park in the satellite lot during construction of a parking deck near the terminal.

"We're pretty much at the limits of what we can expect people to walk," Hart said of the airport's surface parking.

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or twitter.com/meetfor business or 423-757-6651.

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