It’ll soon be easier than ever to pay for parking at the Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco.

And that’s not the only change that’s coming to the facility that set a passenger record in 2023 and that’s proving to be one of the busiest hubs for air travel in the region. 

The airport also is adding a new flight — and with it a new airline — this month, and it’s planning for some longer-term facility improvements to pave the way for continued growth.

“I am very appreciative of the support our community is showing the Tri-Cities Airport,” said Buck Taft, airport director. “We are continuously doing everything we can to provide better air service, to provide better food options and to provide a better experience in the parking lot and in the terminal.”

The airport announced in January that daily parking rates would be going up starting in March. 

They’ll pay for the $2-plus million in parking improvements coming this year, including an expanded cell phone parking lot and a new payment system. “We’ll have new ticket machines, new credit card readers where you can do Apple Pay, Google Pay, making the whole process easier to get in and out,” Taft said.

Also, frequent travelers will be able to register their license plates and credit cards so they won’t even have to roll down their car windows when they get to the parking gate, Taft said.

He’s hopeful the parking improvements will be ready by spring.

The rate for the long-term and credit card parking lots is going from $10 a day to $12 a day, and the rate for the short-term lot is going from $13 to $16 a day. The hourly rate will remain the same.

The first 25 minutes in the short-term lot will continue to be free.

The airport hasn’t raised parking rates since 2017.

Along with the parking improvements, the rate increase also will pay for some longer-term capital improvements at the airport, including expanding the ticketing, administration and baggage claim areas, adding one or two more aircraft gates and adding jet bridges. 

They’ll cost about $140 million and be done over the next 10-12 years, the airport said.

The planned improvements are a sign of the facility’s continued growth. 

While the Covid-19 pandemic turned air travel on its head, the Tri-Cities Airport now has fully bounced back, with a total of 872,578 passengers traveling through in 2023.

That’s an all-time record, beating 870,890 total passengers in 2019.

There is some nuance to the record.

The total-passenger figure represents both people who board and people who disembark from planes at the airport. When you count just enplanements – that’s how many people boarded planes in Pasco, and it’s the number airlines typically look to – last year fell just short of 2019 numbers.

But at 437,200 enplanements, the airport was up 12% in 2023 compared to the year before.

Taft said he’s pleased with the growth and is excited about things to come, including the addition of a new American Airlines flight to Phoenix, Arizona, which is coming online in February.

Allegiant recently cancelled its seasonal service to San Diego, but it only operated twice a week for six weeks a year. San Francisco service offered by United Airlines is temporarily paused while runway construction is happening at the California airport, but it will be coming back this summer, Taft said.

In the next several years, he expects even more routes and destinations to be available.

“I see bigger aircraft and more seats to all our current markets. I see additional flights to our current markets. I see Dallas-Fort Worth service, I see daily LAX service coming back, and I see some more seasonal markets in California, like maybe Palm Springs or Orange County,” he said.

As those shorter-term changes and longer-term growth unfold, the airport will continue putting passengers first, Taft said. “We’re grateful that people love the airport and continue to fly it, and we’re working hard to ensure that we’re always a positive asset for the community,” he said.