Anyone just driving to pick someone up from a flight at will soon have an option of where to wait.
The airport is setting up a cellphone lot at Routes 75 and 140, where the taxi waiting area used to be located, Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, said. It could be open in about 30 days.
Dillon said Thursday some of the CAA board of directors had told him the airport has received a lot of complaints from passengers that there was not a place for people to wait temporarily in their cars to be called on their mobile phones to pick up someone at the terminal. Vehicles are only allowed to stop in front of the terminal to pick up or drop off people, not park or stand for long periods of time.
Other airports around the country have created similar lots, he said. The location of the lot has to be far enough away where people won’t use it as a parking lot and then walk to the terminal, Dillon said.
“This is an item that has been discussed over a number of years,” Michael Long, board vice chairman, said at the board’s meeting.
The new lot will be a test. People will be directed to it by signs, Dillon said. If it is successful, the airport might put signs that show arrival times of planes for those waiting in their cars.
Dillon said he contacted Windsor Locks First Selectman Steven N. Wawruck Jr. about locating the cellphone lot at the former taxi stand and Wawruck supported doing it.
The taxis were closer to the airport earlier this year after complaints from Windsor Locks officials and business owners about noise problems and reports of the drivers running across Route 75 to get to some of the businesses.
