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A year after the Tucson Airport Authority imposed a 7.5 percent fee on nearby private parking lots, three independent operators are still shuttling along South Tucson Boulevard.

And based on the increasing number or airport visitors, there's enough of a market to support both the airport's own massive Park 'N Save lot and the private lots.

The surcharge, passed by the authority's board last September, has generated about $15,000 a month since its inception Nov. 1, and should bring in about $180,000 a year, compared with the $11,000 that had been annually collected through flat fees to the three operators, said Richard Gruentzel, the Airport Authority's vice president of administration and finance.

"It's doing for us what was intended," Gruentzel said, noting that the revenue from the surcharge will help offset the landing fees paid by airlines that use Tucson International Airport. The lower the landing fees, the more attractive Tucson is for airlines, he said.

Harvey Evenchik, owner of Park-N-Fly at 6627 S. Tucson Blvd., said he thinks the Airport Authority had a totally different intention.

"My opinion is they're just trying to wipe us out so they can get all the parking," Evenchik said. "And I think if they can get away with it, they'll probably raise it even more."

The Airport Authority has no plans to revisit the amount of the surcharge, Gruentzel said.

Evenchik said he lowered his parking rates from $3.25 to $2.50 a day for uncovered parking at Park-N-Fly in response to the new fee. With city sales tax and the 7.5 percent surcharge added on, the price comes to $2.74 a day, he said.

That still beats the airport, which charges $4 a day at its 5,342-space Park 'N Save lot and $9 a day for its 918-space long-term parking in front of the airport terminal.

Park 'N Save, while close to the airport and serviced by several shuttles at any given time, actually requires more time than the private lots, said Marana-based mining consultant George Leaming.

"The independents are still cheaper and more convenient, and that's a hard combination to beat," he said.

Janette Hunter charges $7.99 a day plus the 60-cent surcharge at her Trax Transportation lot at 6610 S. Tucson Blvd., but Hunter's valet service is not about price. She offers the business traveler an unparalleled level of convenience, Hunter said.

A Trax employee gets in the car with you and writes up the ticket while you're driving to the airport, drops you off curbside with your luggage and takes your car back to the company's fenced lot. That level of valet service keeps frequent business travelers coming back, despite the surcharge, Hunter said.

"I have to pass it on; I can't absorb a 7.5 percent increase," she said. "And so many of our customers are repeat business travelers that I think they just passed it along to the business as a travel expense. But I'd say that in terms of new business, we're probably down."

Evenchik said "business is good" at Park-N-Fly, but his profit margin is smaller because he lowered his prices after the surcharge was in place.

Fee or no fee, local businessman Jim Gebhart usually opts for the independent lots when he travels, he said. Gebhart owns Tucson-based Now Open Consulting.

"It's convenience more than anything else," he said. "There are a few to choose from, and they're independent, so I like supporting private businesses."

Local commercial-real-estate agent Buzz Isaacson said his first choice is the long-term lot in front of the terminal. If that's full, he backtracks to the independent lots, he said.

The long-term lot reached capacity so often this year that the Airport Authority opted to raise its daily rate from $8 to $9 in September, said TAA President and CEO Bonnie Allin in a statement announcing the price change.

Said Gruentzel, the TAA vice president: "The nature of that lot as well as our short-term lot is they're landlocked, they cannot expand. So, basically, what we're trying to accomplish by raising the long-term rate is to try and encourage people to move over into Park 'N Save, which has plenty of capacity for growth many years into the future."

Two Tucsonans who pile up frequent-flier miles said they go with Park 'N Save.

"I used to use the private-sector lots, but I just kind of felt that is was important to support the Airport Authority," said real-estate appraiser Bruce Greenberg. "It eventually will go to lowering landing fees, and that could help get more flights and more airlines here, so that would be good for the area as a whole."

University of Arizona economist Marshall Vest, who was sitting in an airport in Memphis, Tenn., said he uses the covered parking at Park 'N Save.

"I feel like I should support the Airport Authority, whether the revenue goes into lowering landing fees or not," Vest said. "I just think we have a very well run airport and I like to utilize their parking."

The biggest player in independent airport parking is Joseph Badiei, who owns three Parking Company of America lots on the west side of Tucson Boulevard that advertise prices of $2.99, $3.50 and $4.50 a day for uncovered parking. After adding taxes and the year-old surcharge, the actual rates come to $3.29, $3.86, and $4.96 per day, respectively.

Badiei declined to comment on the surcharge or its effect on his business. When the fee was imposed last year, Badiei said the landing fees at TIA were already very low by industry standards, and that the board never bothered to contact him, Hunter or Evenchik in advance of their 6-2 vote approving the surcharge. Board member Jim Sakrison, despite voting for the surcharge, agreed that the board should have informed the operators of the impending vote.

Fees on concessionaires and other businesses that derive their incomes from airports have long been collected at most airports, though the amounts and ways the fees are collected vary, Gruentzel said. Independent parking lot operators at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport are charged $1.50 per car, whether the car is parked for one day or 10 days. The Tucson Airport Authority's fee amounts to 7.5 percent of the operators' monthly gross revenue from parking.

"In the case of the parking operators, it's called a privilege fee, because that's exactly what it is," Gruentzel said. "it's a fee because they get their customers from users of the airport, and without the airport they'd have no business whatsoever."

Given the increased activity at the airport, there should be ample customers for the airport and the independent operators, said Mike Hanley, president of the Bank of Tucson.

"It's amazing how all these lots are filling up now. When you see that, you realize that what we need is a multitiered garage in there," he said.

Gruentzel said the airport will add 600 long-term parking spaces next year above what's now the rental-car garage just east of the terminal.