If you’re picking up friends or family from the Boise Airport, beginning Tuesday you’ll have to wait a short drive away while they make their way outside.
Airport officials have relocated the cell phone waiting area a few miles to the west on Curtis Road near the I-84 Orchard exit.
The original waiting area consists of a pullout where about 15 vehicles could park at any given time, according to Sean Briggs, a deputy director overseeing parking at the Boise Airport.
Each time one vehicle would leave, the rest would need to pull forward to make room for the next car behind them.
As the city and the airport along with it have grown, there’s far more demand for those 15 premium spaces.
Briggs says that leads to cars routinely line up down the block during peak pickup times, delaying others trying to get to the arrival ramp or rental car facility.
“We wanted to eliminate that where cars backing up were in drive lanes, it wasn’t blocking access to our other parking facilities,” he said. “Simply put, we’d outgrown it.”
From January through July 2024, Boise Airport served more than 2.8 million passengers.
The new cell phone waiting lot, which is next to the airport’s economy parking lot, can accommodate about 50 vehicles and can expand to meet higher demand, Briggs said.
The current cell phone waiting area will be permanently closed after Monday’s final flight arrival.
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