The overnight parking fee at Hongqiao Airport was increased as of yesterday to reduce heavy demand.

The new policy charges hourly fees for parking while before a vehicle owner was charged 12 hours at most even if they parked overnight, Shanghai Morning Post reported today.

The airport charges seven yuan (US$1.03) for the first hour and five yuan for each additional hour. The change sets a fee of 122 yuan for 24 hours, essentially doubling the previous price of 62 yuan.

Those who park only for several hours to pick up arriving passengers will not be affected by the new policy, the report said.

Airport officials said raising parking fees will help control the number of vehicles parking overnight.

The airport has 1,080 parking spots, but car owners still find it difficult to find a place in peak hours, the report said.

The major reason to cause the shortage of the parking place is there are too many overnight cars, officials said.

Some passengers like to drive cars to the airport, park there, take the flight for a business trip or travel, and drive their cars away. Such habit reduced the velocity of turnover of the parking lot, the report said.

The airport is now working on the expansion project in its western area. The construction is expected to be finished before the Expo 2010 and will built large parking lots there.

The parking fee was be adjusted to the original price after the new parking lots open to the public, according to the report.

(Shanghai Daily November 7, 2008)