Pick-up at Belfast city airport

glenderg

Can anyone who has arrived at Belfast city airport lately please tell me if whoever comes to collect you is allowed to pick you up at the front of the terminal building or do you still have to lug yourself and your belongings in the xissing rain to the carpark?
:beer:

Parisien

Am afraid its the latter........setdown only......

dmxdave

They have been doing some work there BUT I think it's to cut down on the use of the barriers in the car park, you will still have to walk to the pickup point lugging you baggage in the p i s s i n g rain THEN as my elderly Mum found there was not even a seat in the hut

jenny-wren

Yes, you can drop off at the Terminal but not pick up, unless you're collecting a disabled person but even then security can be a bit sticky about it.

If someone is coming to pick you up and it's a busy time for flights coming in there will be queue coming into the airport. Loads of drivers will drive backwards and forwards to avoid having to park which makes the traffic worse. The whole system is a complete joke. God help you if you try to drive up to the door of the airport - you'll get descended upon by security / police and moved on!

Bear in mind that if there's a queue going in to the airport there'll be one to get out of the car park - and as you only get 10 minutes free you could end up getting charged £2.00.

What I do when I'm picking someone up is park up near the airport and get the person I'm collecting to phone me when they've collected their luggage. By the time they've walked to the car park I'm there (and if I'm really lucky I can avoid going in at all and can stop for long enough to bundle them and their luggage into the car before horns start beeping!!).

belfastgirl23

Even worse they're doing work on the first half of the short stay car park at the minute so not only do you have to walk to the car park in the p****g rain you also have to walk halfway through the car park as well. Sorry.

I tend to do what Jenny does these days!

Bigcammy

One other option a lot of people aren't aware of is the layby where the old entrance was. There is an airport bus which takes you to the car park, but as far as I know it will also take you to the old entrance as that's where the flyover is to get to the train station. You can get dropped off there and whoever is collecting you can wait in that layby for you.

tara747

Bigcammy wrote: »

One other option a lot of people aren't aware of is the layby where the old entrance was. There is an airport bus which takes you to the car park, but as far as I know it will also take you to the old entrance as that's where the flyover is to get to the train station. You can get dropped off there and whoever is collecting you can wait in that layby for you.

That's even further to walk though!!! :eek:

belfastgirl23

tara747 wrote: »

That's even further to walk though!!! :eek:

Not really cos the bus picks up right outside the terminal and takes you down to the old entrance (I think it's to facilitate train travellers). However you do have to wait for the bus

City airport is a real mess for onward travel these days. I really hate it that no one can pick up any more, not even private taxi firms...the hanging around the portacabin in the freezing cold is a real pain. Does anyone know do taxis pay the parking charge if they are waiting for you? This would explain why they're never there on time...

thriftmonster

But there are no police there before 6am - ok so there are no arrivals before then but it makes a bit of a mockery of the whole security thing

dmxdave

thriftmonster wrote: »

But there are no police there before 6am - ok so there are no arrivals before then but it makes a bit of a mockery of the whole security thing

Also which would you consider a greater security risk?

1. Picking up someone with their baggage that had been through at least one security check?

2. Dropping off someone with goodness knows what right at the terminal.

Mmm

belfastgirl23

imho what they need to do is give everyone at least 30 mins free in the car park. The 15 mins just don't cut it, particularly given that you can't time picking someone up accurately, even if you check the internet (the last two times I picked up from flybe the flight was at least 15 mins early, the time before it was 10 mins late). And given that you often have to queue for a few mins to get out of the car park. It's even worse if the person has to pick up luggage. They also need some sort of display board in the car park letting you know what has/hasn't landed (the police used to do this or you could check the board as you drove past to pick up) - this means if you do end up with a long delay you can take yourself off to tesco or ikea. Simple enough measures that would cut down on a lot of the frustrations at the airport. This might also help to alleviate the pressure on car parking staff which could only improve the atmosphere.

And they need a less grim place to put private taxi customers.

I should really write to the airport itself and tell them that