La Crosse’s airport to get new I-pass type parking system soon

Also being added, canopies over 2nd terminal.

The La Crosse Regional Airport is eliminating one of its two parking pay stations used to exit.

In its place, a third exit lane will be added.

“That’ll make the exits more efficient and quicker,” airport director Clinton Torp said.

Torp added that a new ticketing system will be installed, similar to the I-Pass system used on the tollways in some states.

Frequent travelers would get their own specialized cards, which would be billed occasionally so they could exit more quickly.

Along with that, the airport is also adding new canopies over secondary terminal doors, to protect people from rain and snow. 

Torp said when the current terminal was first built almost 30 years ago, planners eliminated canopies for all but the main entrance to save money. But, attitudes have apparently changed.

“We identified canopies through customer surveys, as something that people would like to see,” Torp said. “So, we’re responding to that and putting them in.”

A similar protective measure was included in the recent makeover of the terminal, when skybridge construction was done to keep more passengers from having to walk outdoors between the terminal and the plane.