Norfolk Airport warns that parking may be scarce this summer with a record number of seats available
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — As Norfolk International Airport continues to see airlines add additional flights, their leadership is concerned parking on property could become scarce during the busy summer travel season.
Over the next two months, a total of seven new nonstop flights will begin flying from ORF. New destinations include San Diego, which was one of the airport’s top underserved locations, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, which marks the region’s first nonstop flight to the Caribbean.
When those additional seats are combined with the already normal increase in flights seen each summer, the amount of total one-way seats offered per month will increase by more than 25% by July, according to data provided by the Norfolk Airport Authority.
Mark Perryman, the authority’s president and CEO, said while he celebrates the new service offerings, it could create a parking problem.
“During spring break, we were within 10% of our capacity this year,” Perryman said. “So that means we had very few parking stalls available for the public, should they have needed to come here. So I imagine this summer, if spring break, we were 90% full, we’re going to see days or weeks this summer [when] we are going to exceed that same number.”
Norfolk International Airport sees 10 percent increase in 2023
Norfolk International has seen 14 consecutive months of record-setting passenger activity, according to the authority. In 2023, 4.5 million passengers passed through its concourse. It currently has roughly 9,000 spots onsite.
While the airport has embarked on an ambitious $850 million plan to renovate the airport, including building a new rental car facility that will free up additional parking spaces, Perryman said in the short-term, there aren’t many options.
He encourages people to plan ahead and take advantage of the airport’s Parking Loyalty Program.
“It’s an advanced reservation system that you can actually get a discount if you book in advance and we refund it if the plane cancels and things like that,” Perryman said. “But it at least allows you as a traveling public to know you’ve got a place to park, helps us manage it from the airport side so that we can manage our flow and our parking spaces a little bit better during those peak times.”
There is no cost to participate in the program.
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