News

Airport opens new waiting lot

New parking area will allow visitors to wait for phone call rather than looping around

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk announced the official opening of a free cell phone waiting lot for passenger pickup at the Dane County Regional Airport Wednesday.

The lot is created to give motorists a temporary location to park while waiting for passengers in the airport.

“This new lot is intended to make it easier for people coming and going from the airport to pick up family and friends,” Falk said in a statement e-mailed to The Badger Herald.

Sharyn Wisniewski, marketing and communications manager at the airport, said the lot is a convenient option for people to sit in their cars and wait for arriving passengers instead of “looping” around the terminal several times, wasting fuel.

The lot, which is approximately a minute drive from the terminal, was designed for those who do not want to exit their car and wait for passengers inside the terminal, Wisniewski said.

“It was created to give one more option to people who are picking up passengers here in the airport,” she said. “Our airport is generally easy to use, and we like to design conveniences for people.”

In addition to the free cell phone waiting lot, passengers can park in the short-term parking lot across from the terminal, but only the first 15 minutes in the lot are free. The short-term lot gives patrons the option of exiting their car and waiting inside the terminal for passengers.

According to Wisniewski, the cell phone waiting lot does not allow motorists to exit their vehicles, otherwise the owners are subject to ticketing or towing at their own expense.

Although the addition of the lot has been in the works since the airport expanded its terminal last year, Wisniewski said the idea for the waiting lot was based on cell phone lots at other airports around the country.

She added the airport already had the land to build the parking space and only paid to light the area and install signs directing motorists to the lot.

“This is one of several added conveniences made it recent years to make sure the Dane County Regional Airport is easy to use for both business and leisure travelers,” Falk said.