MILWAUKEE -- Parking at Mitchell International Airport is hard to come by right now. According to their real-time parking tracker, several of their lots are at or near capacity.
"March is generally our busiest month of the year," Pat Rowe, Spokesperson for General Mitchell International Airport said. "Other times of the year are busy, like around the holidays, but you don't have the mix of business travelers with vacationers."
According to the Airport's Real-Time Parking Tracker, the Super Saver lot has been in the mid to high 90 percent capacity range. Several of the other lots have been at 80 percent capacity as well.
"This creates a crush in parking for a couple of days," Rowe said. "[Wednesday] is the peak day. Thursday morning will also be a busy parking day but by Thursday afternoon, people should be in the clear to park wherever they usually park."
There are options for people who are trying to catch a flight other than driving themselves. The airport suggests getting friends or family to drop you off and pick you up. There are also 145 roundtrip MCTS buses from Downtown daily. Amtrak's Hiawatha train also makes 7 stops a day. When all else fails, Lyft, Uber or another ride-sharing service can help.
For those a bit further outside of the city, Rowe says there are some bigger buses like Badger Bus, Coach USA, and Lamers that have routes to the airport. However, some people may not have known about the trouble they could face when they drove in this morning.
"Honestly, we only fly a couple times a year so I don't know that much," Ross McVey of Appleton said. "We probably would have had to park in the actual terminal and pay twice as much per day."
For the McVey family, they arrived at the airport around 5:15 a.m. The trip from Appleton had them on the road around 3 a.m. this morning and by the time they reached the airport, it would have been too late if the lots were full. Their nearly week-long trip would have ended up costing them nearly $100 as compared to $40 in the Super Saver lot.
"I was surprised when we pulled in and how busy it was," Donna McVey said. "I am [glad we got a spot] because we were running late."
