OAKLAND -- Running an airport parking lot is not what it used to be, and the Port of Oakland has learned that lesson the hard way.

During the past decade, the number of air travelers using airport parking lots has declined, costing the port millions of dollars.

Most of that parking business has gone elsewhere, usually to off- airport lots that offer cheaper rates and more amenities.

In response, port officials want to do the same with their three lots at Oakland International Airport and will seek a private firm to help.

"The issue is, you have to run parking like a business, and the port has not really had to do that," said Port Aviation Director Steve Grossman. "We don't spend much on marketing parking lots, we don't react to changes in the marketplace."

While the port has maintained a relatively simple advertising campaign to attract air travelers to its lots, the competition has offered more for less.

They have offered car washes while you are traveling on business. Oil changes when on a family vacation. Cheaper rates, and more frequent shuttles to their lots, which are just a few miles from the airport's main lobby.

As a result, the number of people using the airport's lots, which offer nothing but proximity to the airport, has decreased by almost half, according to port documents.

Where in 1996 more than

40 percent of the people using the airport parked in its lots, so far this year only 23 percent did.

"It's pretty obvious that it has been some time that we have not been able to fully utilize the spaces we have," said Port Commissioner Frank Kiang, a member of the commission's aviation committee. "Parking has just become a very specialized business."

And a business that port staff members said is better left to the private sector.

Port officials said they believe they can find a firm to take over the parking lots at the airport. That firm then would guarantee a minimum payment to the port each year for the right to do what it wants with airport parking lots.

In addition, the port would work out a formula to share some of the profits the company might make.

In return, the company would get the right to make decisions about the parking lot, which could include setting parking rates and changing what is considered an economy lot and what is the hourly lot.

Should the port follow through with its plan, it would be one of only a handful of airports to have put their lots into private hands, Grossman said.

"We would be blazing new ground with this," he said.

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