With summertime parking at a premium at Reagan National Airport, more travelers are arriving with reservations in hand.
The number of drivers with advance parking reservations rose 36% year-over-year during both the Memorial Day and Juneteenth travel periods, Chryssa Westerlund, chief revenue officer for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), said at a Wednesday board of directors meeting.
Summertime is one of the busiest times at the airport, resulting in a parking crunch even outside holiday periods.
Yesterday morning (Thursday), just 163 spaces were available out of 1,471 total in the economy lot. That’s an 89% occupancy rate.
While there was more availability in the closer-in, covered lots — 553 of 1,080 spaces were available in Parking Lot 1 and 1,618 of 5,068 in Parking Lot 2 — those options come with a higher price tag.
Construction is underway on a three-story parking complex in the long-term (economy) surface lot. When complete, the facility will span 581,000 square feet and provide a net 1,400 new parking spaces.
But until completion next year, there will be fewer spaces available. MWAA officials have been repeatedly urging passengers to use the reservation system if they need to park.
The new economy-parking structure is designed to open in phases next year. Its opening will allow MWAA to begin road-construction projects that will require the use of some covered-parking areas for staging.
The three-story facility on the economy lot is designed to be either a temporary or permanent structure.
Bond sale moves capital projects forward
In other aviation news, Northern Virginia’s two airports — and travelers using them — will benefit from a successful bond sale in support of capital projects.
MWAA staff on July 16 outlined details of the sale of $714 million in capital bonds.
About $410 million of the sale will support new projects, with the remainder used to refinance existing debt from 2015.
Bids totaling $4.8 billion were made on the debt. Competition for the June 5 sale was “very robust,” said Mary Helou, the authority’s debt manager.
The final average interest rate for the bonds worked out to 4.88%, which suggested the offering was “very well-received,” Helou said.
The sale closed on July 10.
Thorn Pozen, a D.C. representative who chairs the MWAA board, said that given market volatility all year, there had been no guarantee that everything would work out as it did.
“It could have gone another way,” he said.
In the lead-up to the debt offering, MWAA retained its existing ratings from the three major bond-rating houses, garnering AA-minus from Fitch and S&P Global and the equivalent Aa3 from Moody’s.
Each came with an outlook of “stable,” and while noting the increasing debt level at MWAA, said it remained manageable.
The new bonds offered dates ranging as far out as 2050.
New master plan envisions growth at Dulles
At the Wednesday meeting, MWAA board members also formally approved a new master plan for Dulles International Airport. It envisions roughly tripling the current annual passenger count by the 2080-90 time frame.
Currently, Dulles handles about 27 million passengers a year with 130 gates, including 79 for United and 51 for other airlines.
Projections for the future include:
- 2040: 38 million passengers, 154 gates (93 for United, 61 for other airlines)
- 2045: 45 million passengers, no changes to gates
- 2080-90 (estimated): 90 million passengers, 218 gates
MWAA officials were quick to say the plan represents a road map, not a guarantee of what will happen.
“We built in flexibility. Who knows what the future holds?” Pozen said.
The 2025 master plan replaces one adopted in 1985, and has been sent to the Federal Aviation Administration for review.
