Starting in September, drivers waiting to pick up passengers at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport will have to keep it moving or find a spot in the parking garage, with the airport announcing an end to a policy that allowed cars to idle curbside for as long as needed.

The airport announced the changes — which will restrict terminal curbsides to active loading and unloading only — on Wednesday, kicking off an educational campaign ahead of the policy officially taking effect on Sept.8.

From then on, drivers will be encouraged to wait in nearby parking garages in one- or two-hour parking zones and pull up curbside only when the person they’re picking up is ready.

“Our curbsides are just becoming saturated,” the airport’s CEO Sean Donohue said. “With this change, we’re going to encourage and basically mandate that if you are here to pick someone up and you’re waiting, you’re going to have to go into the garage.”

1 / 3Pick-up and drop-off at DFW Airport terminals is about to change. Starting in September, after the proper signage (like this one) is in place, officials are not going to allow people to wait in their vehicles at the curb. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 2 / 3Terminal supervisor Peter Wuestenberg (pointing) directs a driver to move on from no stopping or standing location at DFW Airport's Terminal D, Wednesday, July 18, 2018. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) 3 / 3Airline passengers walk across a congested drop-off and pick up area at DFW Airport's Terminal D, Wednesday, July 18, 2018. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News) (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

DFW was the last major airport in the country to allow drivers to wait curbside for extended periods of time to pick up arriving passengers, Donohue said. A similar active unloading and loading only policy is already in effect at Love Field.

The change won't mean added costs for customers, who already pay fees based on how long they stay on the airport grounds, whether curbside or in the garage.

The airport expects 70 million travelers to pass through next year. This growing passenger traffic at DFW, along with the rise of ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft, has contributed to increasingly congested curbsides, Donohue said, especially at peak times when stopped cars can spill over into multiple lanes of the roadway. The airport sees 245,000 more cars per month now compared to February 2015.

Donohue said reducing the number of cars idling for extended periods in front of the terminals will also help improve security at the airport.

It’s a change airport officials have been considering for several years but has held off implementing while parking garages were being upgraded and expanded as part of broader multi-year terminal renovations.

New signs notifying drivers that curbsides are off-limits for waiting are being installed starting this month and the airport will also convert about 1,200 spots in its parking garages into one- or two-hour parking areas, nearly doubling the amount currently available.

Last November, the airport opened a cellphone lot outside its north entrance that also allows drivers to wait without having to enter the tollgates and begin accruing parking charges.

Curbside staffing will be increased for several months after the changes go into effect to help with the flow of traffic, with employees directing idling cars into nearby garages. Donohue said writing tickets will not be part of the enforcement strategy, although customers who leave their cars unattended curbside will be cited under an existing policy.

“This is not about writing tickets for customers,” he said. “It’s going to be ‘Please move along.’”