Tony Cugno, chief operating officer of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, provides an update Monday, May 19, 2025, about vehicles trapped in a burned parking garage at the airport. | Mike Mendenhall Jacksonville Today.
Published on May 19, 2025 at 4:33 pm
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People with cars trapped in the burned parking garage at Jacksonville International Airport will be able to retrieve them beginning Wednesday.
Tony Cugno, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority’s chief operating officer, says airport officials will start contacting passengers by phone Tuesday who registered their vehicle information and contact information on the airport’s fire incident webpage.
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The airport is creating an “orderly process” to remove vehicles from the portion of the garage that was unaffected by the fire, he said.
Owners of nearly all 1,200 vehicles stuck in the hourly garage have filled out the form and contacted the airport, according to Airport Authority officials.
The fire started Friday in a vehicle on the third deck of the hourly parking garage and spread to about 50 vehicles. A portion of the garage ultimately collapsed. The airport was closed for most of the afternoon.
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The airport authority had to determine a safe traffic route out of the garage before it could allow vehicle owners to enter, officials said Monday.
Engineers from firm RS&H Inc. and the airport’s insurance company inspected the damage over the weekend to determine the feasibility of reopening the unaffected areas of the garage.
David Jones, director of engineering and facilities for the Airport Authority, said experts also are considering ways to “shore up” the damaged garage to get it stable to prevent further collapse.
“I want everyone who is affected to know that we’re working as quickly as we can, and we’ll have answers as soon as we have them,” board Chair Michelle Barnett said to open a meeting Monday. “But, again, the number one priority right now is to continue to efficiently and safely operate the airport.”
Vehicles in or near the area in the south hourly garage where the fire began will have to stay put until federal investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the fire marshal have completed their investigation, aviation authority CEO Mark VanLoh said.
The vehicles parked on the top level of the damaged garage may have to be lifted off the parking deck by helicopter, he said.
Officials would not comment on what started the fire, citing the ongoing investigation. But VanLoh did eliminate one possibility.
“We can dispel a rumor. It was not a Tesla. We’re not sure if it was a hybrid (vehicle) or not,” he told board members.
600 spaces out of service
After the north half of the hourly garage is put back into service, that will still leave the airport with 600 fewer spaces and a gap in parking capacity that airport officials will need to fill.
Guano says it could be months before the south hourly garage is operational, and VanLoh told board members Monday that portions of the hourly garage will remain closed indefinitely.
According to VanLoh, some demolition on the south hourly garage is expected, but officials could not give a specific timeline or cost to rebuild.
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority brought in cooling buses Friday to aid passengers stranded in the heat. But VanLoh said it would be difficult to arrange park-and-ride infrastructure for JTA buses to be a solution to the near-term parking shortage.
“The problem with that is those passenger cars have to go park somewhere, and then they have to go get picked up regularly by a bus, and that is very difficult,” VanLoh said. “As you‘ve all probably traveled, you know how anxious you get when it’s time to fly. You want to be at the airport at the gate, so that’s another layer.”
Officials expect the Airport Authority’s loss-of-business insurance, meant to safeguard companies and entities from financial losses caused by temporary closures, will make the airport whole, but not in the current fiscal year.
The board postponed discussion of the Airport Authority’s fiscal 2025-26 budget Monday because the fire’s financial effect is still unclear.
VanLoh said the airport will not raise parking prices as a result of the fire.
A $100 million parking garage currently under construction to support expected traffic increase from a terminal expansion will add 2,000 spaces at the end of 2024 or early 2025.
VahLoh said airport officials spoke over the weekend with contractors working on the garage to nudge the timeline, but nothing was announced Monday.
The airport authority says it’s also working with private, off-site parking services to ensure there is enough parking and transportation to the front of the airport.
In the meantime, officials are asking passengers to consider alternatives to their own vehicles to keep automobile traffic at the airport to a manageable level.
“Try and take an Uber or Lyft to the airport, or have a good friend take you and pick you up just to get us through this period,” VanLoh said.
