ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Airport is experiencing its busiest week of the year, and travelers will notice a new parking system in the garage designed to improve their experience.

The new parking system in the garage is part of the ongoing remodeling process at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport. And you’ll notice how it works as soon as you drive in

New parking system

The system is straightforward: red lights indicate occupied spots, green lights mean available spots, blue lights are for handicap-accessible spaces, and purple lights signify online-reserved spots. Each row has a sign displaying the number of open spaces in real time.

“So you don’t have to turn down a row and then look to see a row of red lights. You can turn down a row knowing how many green lights, how many spaces are there for you,” explained Monroe County Executive Adam Bello

The system uses sensors to trigger the lights.

“They’re vertical, they prevent birds from roosting on them, right? That’s important, so it helps to maintain them as well,” added Bello.

News10NBC’s Jennifer Lewke asked how much the new system costs and where the money came from.

“The total cost for the parking system was just over a million dollars,” Rochester Airport Director Andy Moore revealed.

The system was funded by two state grants. Travelers appreciate the investment.

“We were just noticing it when we drove in today, the red lights flashing,” said Charlene Korndoerfer, who is flying out to visit her sister. She added, “I think it’s really cool. Like I said, you’re not driving in and out trying to find a spot to park, wasting your time.”

Reserving a parking spot online

While the new system helps find open spots easily, reserving a spot in advance will cost more. If you want to ensure you have a spot on busy travel weeks during the holidays, it’ll cost you an extra $5 per day.

“Other parking rates are still the same, those have not increased, just the enhanced service of a dedicated parking space there is a $5 surcharge,” said Moore.

If you’re more of a bargain shopper and don’t mind parking in one of the outside lots and taking the shuttle to the terminal, you know those can fill up fast too.  

Moore says he’s working on a solution to that too, but it won’t be ready in time for this holiday season.

“We’re also going to be expanding some parking spaces, about 200 more spaces moving into 2025, probably over the summer,” said Moore. “So those will be onsite parking spaces to give more options and more available shuttle lot and weekly lot spaces to passengers here in Rochester, too.”

To reserve a spot, click here.

Busiest travel week of the year

More people fly in and out this week than at any other time of the year. News10NBC spoke with travelers about their journeys and recent changes at the airport.

Among the travelers, a heartwarming reunion took place between local grandparents and their granddaughter, Tina Cassella, who is visiting for Thanksgiving.

“I’m here for Thanksgiving to see everyone, I haven’t been up here in like five years to see everybody,” said Tina Cassella.

Her grandmother, Rosalie Cassella, expressed her joy, saying, “I’m speechless. I’m so happy and not only is she coming but her dad is coming and her two brothers and we haven’t seen them in over a year so it’s going to be wonderful and the whole family is going to be together, they’re all coming to Rochester so we are so happy!”

Tina is one of nearly 30,000 people expected to fly into or out of Rochester in the coming days.

The airport director noted that 52 flights per day are leaving, and they are full. This could benefit the community in the long term.

“They just track that take a look at where they need to add more flights maybe more frequencies to certain destinations price points quite honestly so they use that data to make decisions on whether they want to keep making investments at a particular airport or whether they want to withdraw from an airport and move that aircraft somewhere else. So, the more passengers that we get through Roc, the more people flying it gives an incentive to airlines to start making more investments in this community,” said Moore.

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