Santa Barbara Airport upgrades long-term parking lot

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Santa Barbara Airport has finally finished the repaving of their parking lot on Friday for public use.

Due to the pandemic and the lesser number of travelers, the airport used the past couple of months repairing and upgrading the airport for when operations are back in use.

One of their most significant upgrades is the repaving of the airport’s long-term terminal parking lot.

Over the last couple of years, the airport says many passengers have noticed the buckling blacktop and weeds pushing up through the cracks.  

Due to the lot being at or over capacity, the airport's repaving project was difficult to achieve because they would have to close portions of the lot for significant periods of time. “We actually attempted to repave the lot last year, but we had to abort the effort because the impact of closing even portions of the parking lot was just too severe on travelers,” explained Airport Director Henry Thompson.

Due to the pandemic, the airport had lost 96 percent of their passengers. “When we realized that the pandemic would leave the lot empty for a while, we jumped on the chance to accelerate the project.” said Thompson.

The airport lot has now nearly 750 parking stalls, not including motorcycle and ADA-parking.  

Another significant improvement is that every parking stall now has a number to make locating vehicles upon return much easier.

The lot reopened on Friday.