Parking at Hawaii’s largest airport is about to get more crowded and expensive, though users have one relatively new guide to help hunt for open spaces.

The state Department of Transportation announced Thursday that it plans to raise the daily parking rate at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu and also charge more to park for over six hours but under eight hours, effective Jan. 1.

Currently, it costs $18 to park at the airport for over six hours and up to 24 hours. The new rates will be $19 to park between six and seven hours, $20 to park between seven and eight hours, and for over eight hours (up to 24 hours) will be $22.

Effectively, the maximum daily rate is rising by 22% and will kick in after eight hours instead of after six hours.

Jai Cunningham, the department’s spokesperson, said the increase is intended to generate an additional roughly $1 million a year to help pay for parking improvements at the airport including security camera upgrades, as well as to promote more turnover use.

“If you are a local family driving auntie to the airport and you need to help her at the checkout counter and get her all the way through TSA, once you get back to your car, you’re going to be paying the same rate,” he said. “It (the rate increase) really only affects the sort of back end.”

The last time Honolulu airport parking rates were raised was 2015, when the daily rate rose to $18 from $15 and also increased for all neighbor island airport parking, where rates rose to $15 from $12. The three most recent increases before that happened in 2011, 2009 and 1993.

To help airport users find open parking spaces, the private management firm for Honolulu airport parking, ABM, recently installed several digital display boards that show the number of available stalls in each of the three parking structures at the airport.

The displays, which were installed about a month ago and are near parking garage entries, showed 43 empty stalls in the 1,737-stall “interisland” Terminal 1 garage a little before noon Thursday. In the 1,800-stall “overseas” Terminal 2 garage, there were 1,308 empty stalls, and in the 1,792-stall “international” garage, there were 449 available stalls.

Cunningham said the interisland Terminal 1 structure gets completely or nearly filled almost daily and that demand is about to increase with holiday travel that can put all three Honolulu airport garages at or near capacity.

TSA, the federal Transportation Security Administration, announced Thursday that it expects holiday airport travel volume nationally to rival pre-pandemic levels, which included a single-day record in 2019.

“We expect to be busier this year than last year at this time, and probably very close to pre-pandemic levels,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement.

The federal agency said the elevated Thanksgiving holiday travel period starts today and runs through Nov. 27.

Tuesday and Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving on Thursday, as well as Sunday after the holiday, are typically the three busiest days for travel during the period, according to the agency.

TSA screened nearly 2.9 million passengers nationwide on the Sunday following Thanksgiving in 2019 to set a record. On the same day in 2021, TSA screened 2.5 million passengers; it expects that this year the count could top 2.5 million.

The agency also said it expects that it might screen as many as 2.5 million passengers the day before Thanksgiving.

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Parking costs

The DOT plans to raise rates at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport and use the funds for upgrades.

>> Now: $18 to park at the airport for over six hours and up to 24 hours

>> New: $19 for the seventh hour, $20 to park for eight hours and $22 to park between nine and 24 hours