ParkNews.biz week of Jan 5th- 11th, 2021 – FlashParking, Arrive, Airport Travel, PT Plus and more …

January 11, 2021

ParkNews.biz week of Jan 5th- 11th, 2021 – FlashParking, Arrive, Airport Travel, PT Plus and more …

This past week, the first week of the new year, the biggest news in Parking Industry were a merger of FlashParking and Arrive: Jan 5, 2021 – FlashParking and Arrive to Merge — Creating the First End-to-End Digital Mobility Platform Serving Consumers, Parking Operations, and Mobility Service Partners

Together, they are determined “to create a company designed to bring digital and touchless technologies to parking garages. The pandemic has accelerated the need for such services, the CEOs of both companies said in an interview, and the combined business aims to help garages with not just digital parking solutions, but a range of micro-mobility tools designed to reimagine what a parking garage can be.”

In the past year, despite the pandemic, FlashParking grew by 50%: Currently, FlashParking has around 230 employees, while it had 150 at the start of 2020. And although Arrive went through some furloughs, currently they have more than 100 employees, thus the combine company has 330 persons.

The merger promises not to result in any layoffs.

Dan Sharplin, the CEO of FlashParking said: “Flash was born out of a need to digitize and modernize parking infrastructure,” and the merger was a “hand-in-glove fit.”

Arrive’s CEO Yona Shtern said: “This is a growth story not only for the company, but for the people within it.”

And speaking of growth, the best news story of this past week goes to Orlando International Airport and their volume of travel: Jan 11, 2021 – Orlando International Airport Had Most Departures in US During Holidays

“Economic forecasters say that where there’s an increase in travelers, there’s an increase in tourism dollars, and this could be a sign that things are looking up in 2021.

A couple of businesses along Orlando’s International Drive, in the tourist district, said this past holiday season brought much more business than they were expecting during the pandemic.

The travel numbers through OIA were much higher than airport officials anticipated, though they were down 42% from 2019’s holiday season, pre-pandemic.

That said, OIA shot past its departure passenger number predictions for this year by more than 100,000.

One economic expert said it’s a good sign, and not just for the airport.

“It presents, or indicates, a much more rapid recovery than I think was expected when we were at the worst of this pandemic, and there was virtually no passenger traffic at the airport,” said Sean Snaith, Director of UCF’s Institute for Economic Forecasting.”

This Sunday, I flew back from Fort Myers, FL via Charlotte, NC to LAX. Through the pandemic, I have flown back and forth to Florida several times be it via Dallas or Charlotte. Yesterday, the airports in Fort Myers, FL and in Charlotte, were packed. Way busier than anytime I have seen it in the past 7 months. The restaurants in Charlotte, bars and shops were especially full. Everyone was wearing masks yet, there seemed eagerness and hope for normal travel to resume and for life to blossom again.

And to go on, we must. With common sense but courage to keep on living and thriving. Thus, this past week, we have created Parking Today Plus: Jan 6, 2021 – Parking Today Announces “PT Plus”

“Parking Today announces that membership is now open in PT Plus. This membership enables companies to provide an unlimited number of news releases to be posted on Parknews.biz plus have them digitally printed in our online issue of Parking Today each month.”