The 9th edition of the Airport Parking Network Event co-hosted by Fraport was a success for both the airport parking operators as well as the industry representatives. The event began with opening remarks from Gerald Krebs, Senior Vice President Parking Management and Landside Traffic Operations, who talked about the role of digital parking in airports.
After a coffee and tea break, participants attended different airport parking manager discussions with topics ranging from airport curbside, to digitalization and the different airport parking products. The challenges of managing truck parking and useful solutions was enriching and, in this discussion, Frankfurt Airport shared their recent efforts to regulate illegal truck parking at airports.
After the networking lunch on Monday, the first round of workshops began with companies like ADVAM, TravelCar and Stanley Robotics engaging parking operators to continue discussing their most pressing parking needs. Throughout the three rounds of workshops, parking operators meet with leaders in revenue management, solar power, parking guidance, technology and payment solutions.
Monday evening concluded with networking drinks at the hotel and a fantastic networking dinner in the Japan Tower. Participants enjoyed a magnificent view of Frankfurt, good music and a variety of food and cocktails.
On Tuesday morning, participants received a very unique tour of the parking facilities at Frankfurt Airport visiting the different products such as business parking, parking for car rental companies, short stay parking, and long stay parking. Participants also visited the control room for all of the parking areas at Frankfurt Airport where participants learned how Frankfurt Airport deals with traffic flow, security and cooperation between the airport and the police.
After the tour, parking operators took part in an open discussion about pre-booking and online reservations. Airport parking operators are now faced with the challenge of analyzing data to optimize their offering and how they can best promote short or long term parking. An increase in passengers is also forcing airports to work with capacity problems and to view mobility disruptors like car sharing as opportunities instead of threats. The discussion also centered on the challenge of roll up or drive up customers who enter a car park and parking operators have no clue how long they will stay.
The second day concluded with another three rounds of workshops that continued the morning’s discussion. During lunch, everyone was in good spirits enjoying the good food and, during the closing remarks, the Airport Parking Network was unveiled.
The event proved to be a tremendous success giving participants enough to take back to their airports to optimize and improve their operations. With the help of the Airport Parking Network, the discussions will continue until next year’s edition, on November 19th and 20th, 2018.
We would like to thank all the airport parking operators, the industry representatives and Fraport for helping us make this event a success!
