Thousands of people were able to park for free at the Aspen airport for nearly two months, and now the county is going after the company that’s responsible for the massive revenue loss. Aspen Public Radio’s Carolyn Sackariason reports.
The Aspen/Pitkin County Airport is out almost $58,000 in revenue that was lost starting on Nov. 11. That was the day that an employee at Nebraska-based TSYS Merchant Solutions accidentally deleted the airport as a customer in its software system.
When that happened, the company’s payment machines would not accept cash or credit cards from motorists who attempted to exit the short or long term parking lots. Airport officials realized there was a problem so they turned off the mechanism that controls the arm that lets people out. But they tracked the transactions.
John Kinney is the airport’s director. He says it’s unreal one person could cause such havoc.
“It was completely shocking to us,” he says.
Because TSYS was in the process of being acquired by another company and local officials weren’t able to get it resolved, the inability to use the pay machines continued until Jan. 6.
“What was also shocking was the amount of time it took to re-establish us as a vendor but we really got caught in that kind of limbo,” Kinney says.
The county is now demanding payment and is prepared to sue if necessary. Carolyn Sackariason, Aspen Public Radio news.