Originally Posted by
ASDwxguy
Good news concerning the rental car facility. A $100 million dollar bond issuance was approved last week by the airport board to move forward with a new rental car facility near the new terminal. Initially, the shuttle to the CONRAC on the southside of the airport property will have to suffice, but by the end of 2019/early 2020 the new rental car facility should be open. Still will require a short shuttle ride over the new facility, but much better than what we'll see initially.
The parking crunch should also be relieved as a new garage to the east of the new terminal along with the one currently in place north of the new terminal will be open by Feb. 2019. There will also be a new surface lot to the west of the terminal. The current parking garages on the southside of the property will turn into a mix of employee and economy parking. Employee parking will be in the current short term garage and economy parking will be in the current long term garage. Not sure if the current credit card lot will be used, but I imagine it will. Once the CONRAC on the northside is open, the plan is to convert the existing CONRAC into additional economy parking. There are 18 shuttles on order to service the southside of the airport once the new terminal opens. These shuttles will be using Bainbridge to access the new terminal. That will help keep some traffic away from the Loyola/Vets intersection.
As of now there will be 2 clubs in the new terminal. A Delta Skyclub and a United Club. Both will be located in or near Concourse C. The Skyclub will be 2 floors with great views of the runway. The United Club will be a ground level club. There are rumors that an independent lounge will also open over in Concourse B, but nothing confirmed as of yet.
The biggest issue will continue to be access from I-10. An RFP for a design-build contractor will be issued in January 2019 to build the new flyover ramps at Loyola. Construction should start at some point later into 2019, and will likely be finished by 2023. In other words, expect serious traffic issues at Loyola and I-10 due to capacity constraints and construction. There are some improvements going on right now to help traffic flow, but it's still going to be a mess. I think I'll just park down at the Park N Fly and shuttle over until the flyover ramps are done.
Thank you for your informative post. It's crazy to me that they're building
another new rental car facility, but it will be good for business in the long run. I wonder what they'll do with the old facility.
I hope that the distance factor decreases long-term parking prices, for sure. I always laughed at short term vs. long term parking at MSY since long-term is really just as convenient (although it's harder to find a spot sometimes that's not on the roof of the garage).
As for the SkyClub, that sounds amazing. I don't really fly DL that much anymore so I no longer have a membership, but it sounds like I'll have to give it a try next time I'm traveling through MSY on a DL flight. Fingers crossed for an American Airlines Admirals Club!