Picking up travelers from the El Paso airport could take longer due to construction

Construction at the airport may make that trip to pick up a relative a bit more time consuming.

Crews are working on a three-story car rental facility at El Paso International and to accommodate that construction, airport officials have shifted some parking spaces.

The rental car lots have been moved to what used to be part of the short term parking lot.

The car rental return lot used to be on the westside of the building, where the construction is currently happening.

The car rental return lot is now taking up about a third of the short term parking lot – that’s 330 fewer short term parking spaces.

“We do have parking available. I want to assure people that.” El Paso International Airport’s Aviation Director Monica Lombrana said there are enough spaces – you just can’t expect to park right in front every time you go to the airport. “It’s unfortunate just like when we go to the mall – we want to be able to have a parking space that’s closest to the mall but during the holiday season just like it is at the mall it’s very busy.”

Lombrana said they check parking every four hours – and the more than 900-space short term parking lot is never really completely full. “We still have ample parking throughout the airport. We don’t have a shortage of parking. We have about 920 spaces available in the short term parking lot.”

The new rental car facility is expected to be finished in early 2016.
the 37 million dollar project is paid by user fees from rental car customers