Local airline passengers weigh cost, convenience

Which would you choose — more nonstop flights and lower fares at Denver International Airport, or convenience and free holiday parking at the Colorado Springs Airport?

For Sarah Skiffington of Wyoming, the choice was simple when she made a reservation for her son to fly into Colorado Springs for the holiday.

“Obviously, I wanted him to fly into Colorado Springs so that we don’t have to drive up to Denver and deal with all the traffic, trying to park, and just all the chaos that goes on at DIA,” she said.

Several DIA parking lots were full Wednesday, hours before the holiday travel period officially began.

For the second straight year, the Colorado Springs Airport offers free parking in November and December. The airport has 5,700 parking spaces, including an overflow lot that holds 600.

“We didn’t use the overflow last year,” said airport spokeswoman Heather Lenard. “The purpose of the holiday parking is to thank our community and incentivize supporting your local airport.”

Lenard did not provide figures for how many passengers used free parking last year.

“We think it’ll be about the same (figure) this year,” she said. “We expect to fill 14,000 seats on flights during the holiday period.”

Still, many travelers said free parking and the convenience of using a local airport don’t balance the lower cost of flights, the wider choice of destinations and the greater availability of nonstop flights at DIA.

However, Bevin Antea said she prefers the Colorado Springs Airport.

“It was so surprisingly easy to park, easy to check in; it’s less chaotic than I’m used to for holiday travel,” she said.

Kenneth Gravino said had he known about the free parking, he would have driven to the airport Wednesday and probably not missed his flight to Dallas.

“I’m on standby,” he said. “I hope I don’t get routed to DIA. The last time I went there, it took longer to find my car than it took me to go through security.”