Denver International Airport garages will stop accepting cash next month
Starting on Feb. 1, Denver International Airport will no longer accept cash payments in their garages to exit. Passengers will have to use a kiosk machine in the terminal on the fifth floor to exit.
Airport officials say this will make leaving the airport more efficient. They say paying with cash at these machines already takes 5 to 6 minutes while credit card payments only take 2 to 3 minutes, essentially cutting the time in half.
The new cash payment kiosks are located on Level 5 of the terminal. Two kiosks are located at Terminal East, between doors 507 and 509 and another two are at Terminal West, between doors 506 and 508.
If a passenger tries to leave the garage and only has cash after Feb. 1, the parking assistant will turn you around to pay at the Level 5 machine. Your garage ticket will be frozen so you don't have to worry about fees increasing.
Danielle Marcove, director of parking and transportation for DIA, tells CBS News Colorado this model came from airport officials evaluating other airports.
"As we were looking at other airports throughout the nation, DFW and JFK do not allow cash options at all," Marcove said. "We are kind of going along the lines of LAX. They have the same model where they don't accept cash in lanes, but they do have cash kiosks in the terminal as well."
Once you pay for your ticket with cash, you have a time limit to leave the garages. This includes:
- East and West Garage: 30 minutes to exit
- East and West Economy: 45 minutes to exit
- Shuttle: 60 minutes to exit
Airport officials urge people to keep track of their parking tickets, as you'll have to pay for a new one, which costs more than the original.
