The cost to park your car at the San Antonio airport is about to go up.
During a recent council budget workshop, the city’s Director of Aviation, Jesus Saenz, released a new ground transportation fee schedule that shows most parking fees will increase in November.
The price hikes come as passenger growth has dipped by 5% from 2025 to 2026 which Saenz attributed to government shutdowns and Spirit Airlines’ demise. As a result, the San Antonio International Airport (SAT) went from 50 direct flights to 47 this year.
“We continue to work on many targeted markets, as we go forward — the transatlantic piece is important to us,” he said of resuming flight service to Europe after the German carrier Condor abruptly departed the airport in 2024.
In the meantime, SAT continues to serve as the largest-serving medium hub U.S. airport with direct flights into Mexico, he said, “and we want to continue to be very bullish on that as we connect San Antonio into all parts of Mexico.”
But holiday season air travelers might want to take note.
The increased cost for long-term and short-term car parking, plus fees for rideshares, shuttles and taxis, go into effect on Nov. 1.
The daily long-term parking rate is increasing from $16 to $20, and the daily short-term from $29 to $30. The hourly rate for short-term parking does not change, but hourly rate for long-term will cost $1 more, starting from $4 to $16.
Parking fees for valet service, which has grown in popularity since being initiated in 2020, are going up from $15-$33 to $20-$33 per day.
“When we started valet, people thought I was crazy — we asked for 40 spaces,” Saenz said. “In peak periods, we parked close to 800 cars in valet. So we want to continue to move in that market.”
The economy lot rates remain the same at $3-$10 per hour.
Ground transportation fees for rideshares, limos, shuttles and charters are increasing, but not taxis, which only account for less than 2% of the airport’s ground transportation business.
The proposed fees help support SAT’s capital investment program to include a new parking garage and roadway upgrades totaling $260 million while ensuring the airport can continue providing a high level of service as passenger demand grows, said an airport spokeswoman in an emailed statement.
The increases will bring an estimated $10 million more in revenue to the San Antonio International Airport’s 2027 fiscal year budget. Vehicle parking is one of the airport system’s largest non-aeronautical revenue sources.
The new parking fees were “benchmarked” with other Texas airports, Saenz said. “We’re in alignment, if not below, what other Texas airports are charging for similar services.”
At the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, parking fees for the garage range between $26 and $35 per day, or $5-7 an hour, and the economy spaces are $14 per day, $5 per hour.
At Dallas Love Field, daily rates range between $18 and $24, or $30 for premium parking, and $5-8 per hour.
The airport has not increased parking and transportation fees since 2022, Saenz said, the same year the world began to emerge from the COVID pandemic and travel again.
In April 2024, the airport announced a plan to outsource its parking operations to the Cleveland-based SP Plus Corporation through a 10-year contract.
The contract with SP Plus is valued at $10 million a year, which includes a management fee of $282,000 the first year, increasing 3% annually.
Airport officials said privatizing parking operations would increase revenue from a projected $309 million in the first 10 years to $376 million after.
The airport’s 2026 fiscal year budget shows a $5.75 net parking revenue-per-enplanement in 2025. Total parking revenue for that year came to $38.7 million, and for 2026, the projected revenue is $46 million.
Saenz said the service ratings on SP Plus are overall positive. “We still have a couple of things we have to work and tweak as it’s a new system,” he said. “I would say 95 to 98% of our passengers that are utilizing the disabled veteran program are happy [and] probably 98 to 99% of our passengers that are utilizing the new system, which is an AI system, is all very positive as well.”
A new $132 million parking garage and ground transportation center is under construction at the airport which will provide another 2,500 spaces when it’s completed in 2028.
But the “most important thing” airport officials are focused on in the next two years, Saenz said, is the new Terminal C under development, which doubles the size of the airport. “So we’ve got to be prepared for that as well,” he said.
