Main Terminal Parking Lot

Main Terminal Parking Lot at RDM

$24 per day buys you the closest spot at RDM: the Main Terminal Parking Lot sits directly across the street from the terminal, with a walk that’s roughly 3–5 minutes from most spaces to the doors. Regulars use it because it’s simple, small, and you can be out of your car and into the check-in line in just a few minutes.

Rates are straightforward: the first 30 minutes are free, then it’s $2 for 31–60 minutes, $2 for each additional hour, capped at a $24 daily maximum. That free half hour is popular with locals who want to walk in to baggage claim, hand off keys, or greet an arriving flight without circling the curb or worrying about a ticket.

This is a long-stay lot, run by SP Plus, with a staffed exit booth operating 24/7, which matters at a regional airport where flights leave before sunrise and land close to midnight. If you lose a ticket or have a dead battery after a week in the snow, the parking staff and airport security can help with a portable jump starter, snow shovel, or ice scraper.

Shorter-term options sit near the taxi lane inside the same lot: marked 3-hour maximum spaces that locals grab for meet-and-greet pickups or extended farewells. Reviewers say they usually find a space outside the biggest holiday rushes, but during Thanksgiving and Christmas the lot can get very full and may require looping or shifting to the overflow/credit-card lot at the same $24 daily rate.

Tip: Pull into the Main Terminal Parking Lot first; if you can’t spot an open space after one slow loop, head straight to the overflow lot rather than burning time hunting row by row.