May 31, 2007 2:17 pm US/Eastern
At JFK, Park And Wait For Your Cell Phone To Ring
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
Free parking? At an airport?
Just in time for the summer travel season, when passenger volume and terminal hassles hit their peak, New York's busiest airport is offering a "cell phone parking lot" for people picking up arriving passengers.
Instead of driving in circles or trying to seem invisible in illegal spaces, they can park free and wait for the traveler's cell phone call to summon them to the pickup point.
While cell phone parking has not been seen previously in New York, "it's a fairly new phenomenon at airports around the country," said Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns and manages JFK, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports.
The system went into effect at JFK just before Memorial Day.
There are no immediate plans for it at Newark-Liberty or LaGuardia. "It's a question of real estate, of having the space for it," DiFulco said. "If we could find that we would reconsider it."
Cell phone parking at JFK is one of several innovations the Port Authority said Thursday it is implementing as its airports gird for an expected 30 million customers this summer.
Valet parking for travelers—already in use at Newark Liberty—is to begin later this year at JFK, using a large parking lot located near the AirTrain terminal.
Other improvements include new "welcome centers," replacing the existing ground transportation counters, and 200 more "customer care representatives," identifiable by their red jackets, to assist travelers at counters, entrances and exits, even getting through U.S. Customs and Transportation Security checkpoints.
"They will be there to help with directions, questions, filling out papers and so forth," DiFulco said.
Newark Liberty and LaGuardia will have 5,000 new seats for people waiting. There will be new signs, flight information monitors, new seats and floors on the JFK AirTrain's 32 cars, and more food and concession facilities beyond security checkpoints, the authority said.
In a statement, PA executive director Anthony Shorris said these were all part of "our vision for our airports. ... The Port Authority is beginning a new era of commitment to customer service."
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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