You flew to Denver and back for $198.
You parked your car for six days and it cost $174.
Your Honda, which did nothing, sat motionless on a piece of asphalt, and nearly matched what it cost to move an actual human being across the country in a pressurized aluminum tube at 500 miles an hour.
That should be impossible. Flying involves jet fuel, pilots, mechanics, air traffic control and a $100 million aircraft. Parking involves a painted rectangle.
Gif by columbusairport on Giphy
And yet.
Here is the thing nobody tells you. That is not a mistake, and the airport is not being greedy in the way you think.
Airports have a structural problem. They cannot charge airlines very much. The rules and the economics of the industry make sure of it.
So the money has to come from somewhere else. And the somewhere else is you, standing in a parking garage, holding a ticket with a number on it that makes your stomach drop.
Parking is not a service the airport offers. It is one of the load bearing walls of the entire building.
Let me show you why.