Airport Parking - futuristic designs

Parking is an essential part of all airports, even if they are well connected to public transport networks. The distance from the parking area to the check-in counters is often far too long. Skyline Systems brings the cars to the customers instead of forcing them to cart their luggage to their cars far away in a dark and huge parking garage. This not only saves money and space it also makes parking safer, more comfortable and more economical.

A car park right next to the check-in counter

Many departures and arrivals are in the early morning or late at night, so often there is no public transport available. Passengers often travel with lots of luggage and in small groups. In these instances travelling by car to and from the airport is not only more economical but also considerably more comfortable. Increasingly Airports are turned into shopping centres and regional hubs for the local public transport system such as buses and railways, where people transfer from the car to train and bus and vice versa. It is not possible to accommodate large parking areas and parking garage within walking distance from the airport terminals. Therefore Shuttle Buses and luggage trolleys are required together with a complicated and expensive infrastructure and organization. The easiest and most customer-friendly option is, if the car parks are within easy walking distance from the check-ins or arrivals, so luggage carts do not have to be collected within the whole area of the airport.

Cars are delivered to the drivers

Ideally the car should be delivered to the driver so the passenger does not have to cart his luggage all the way to his car. With the advanced automated parking systems this is possible. The walkways are short and easy and the trolleys are parked adjacent to the entrance of the automatic parking system.

The average parking time at airports is considerably longer than in most other car parks. In inner-city parking garages, this is often only 2 to 3 hours. At airports however - whether used by passengers, car rental companies, valet parking organisations or employees – parking time is on average often over 1 day. The peak hours are relatively low. This results in a much more favourable ratio of capacity to output performance. This is why automated car parks at airports are considerably cheaper as compared to those in urban locations.

In a current project of a European airport, Skyline Parking proposed to create 6’000 parking bays, instead of the planned 2’500 to be erected in the same fixed and given shape and dimensions. All automated entrances are facing the airport terminal close to the arrival and departure hall. There is no need for the passengers to enter the parking garage. There are no stairs and no lifts to be used. The car is delivered and can be driven away within 60 seconds.

The system is equipped with 22 Storage and Retrieval Machines (STM) and the same number of entry and exit points. This results in an input / output performance of 1’300 cars per hour.

All components are designed to be completely redundant. So that each group can be shut down for maintenance, while the rest of the system remains fully operational. The client`s frustrating search for free parking spaces or the position of their car – which after holidays by many is forgotten - is herewith completely eliminated. In addition, there are two fully automated car washing systems. Now cars can even be washed while they are parked.

VIP – Parking at Terminal 1

Besides saving a lot of space, high flexibility is a big advantage of Skyline Car Park Systems. They can be created in many attractive, unusual or arbitrary shapes and layouts. They can be established on barely usable small plots of land, between or affixed to existing buildings whether for permanent or temporary use. Some examples are shown in these illustrations.

This layout is called “VIP Parking at Terminal 1” will give airports the opportunity to provide separate, secure and chic parking for First - and Business Class passengers close to the terminal. Each tower contains dual conveyor systems, four entries and exit bays and has a capacity of up to 320 cars, a total of 1’280. One of them has a car wash system integrated.

With small additions to existing car parks or in existing buildings very cost efficient parking bays can be created on properties which otherwise cannot be utilised. Existing parking garages may be expanded easily, even using their existing driveways as well as access and payment systems.

Many car parks, especially at airports are equipped with the very popular spiral ramps. The downside of this is the unusable interior core space of approx. 12 to 16 m in diameter. This often means more than 6’000 m3 is wasted. With the Skyline R-park system, the space in the cores of the spiral ramps is used to park up to 200 additional cars.

Efficient underground parking bays can easily be created with Skyline without interfering with the use of the surface at all. Instead of large space consuming ramps only small entrance boxes are required to access the underground. They can be arranged extremely flexible and only a fraction of the excavation works is required.

The desire to store cars vertically is not new. However this requires efficient handling equipment with a very high capacity, great reliability and availability with a minimum requirement of space. In addition such towers should have a modern and attractive form to fit into a progressive environment. The Skyline Parking towers with the patented dual lift system can combine all these requirements.

If cars should disappear from the roadside, then the simplest solution is to park underground. To make underground parking affordable however, parking bays have to be as compact as possible. Previously used entrance ramps, emergency exits, ventilation and stairs wasted over 80 % of the area available. With the Skyline S-Park the number of cars increases by the factor 3 to 4 and only a fraction of the excavation, and underground construction cost are needed.

During a major event or only seasonal, large numbers of parking spaces are sometimes needed for a limited period of time. In other cases, the demand is difficult to predict and there is a huge investment risk. For this purpose Skyline Parking offers temporary facilities which also can be rented. These prefabricated modules or shipping containers can easily be erected, again disassembled and re-used at other locations or for their original purpose.

All these different lay-outs and designs are all very space efficient, have a high performance and use less land and energy. Skyline Parking takes on the critical challenges of today while enhancing the sustainability of tomorrow through ecological innovations.