Leeds Bradford airport drop off charges :-(

geordieracer

People from Peterlee have a distinct lack of knowledge

shaun_from_Africa

They sold the rights for one taxi firm to have exclusive use of the Airport, so if they do not charge other taxis for picking up or dropping off, what is the real value of the exclusivity of the taxi firm buying the rights?

They are not allowed to charge or stop other taxi firms from picking up or dropping off, but they are allowed to stop other companies cabs from touting for business.
Gatwick airport is exactly the same. Any cab is allowed to drop you off, but they can only do a pick up if it is prebooked. (very difficult when arriving as you can never know for sure the exact time that you will be ready.

The fare for a taxi from my house to Gatwick is £8, but using one of the airport cars for the return journey costs £16.50, so even though the airport taxi company probably had to pay a fortune for the rights to airport business, I'm sure that they are making a good deal of money from it.

liam8282

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

They are not allowed to charge or stop other taxi firms from picking up or dropping off, but they are allowed to stop other companies cabs from touting for business.

I think you missed the point of this thread, LBA charges EVERYBODY for picking up or dropping off, that includes rival taxi firms.

Yes rival taxi firms cannot pull up at a rank, because there isn't one at LBA, but you can prebook any taxi you want and use them to pick you up and drop you off.

I must add to this, that rival taxi firms were also offered the chance to buy an annual pass to cover their picking up and dropping off charges, something along the lines of £20 for an annual pass IIRC, this was all documented in the YEP a couple of weeks ago.

liam8282

Link to one of the YEP stories about this:

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/anger_at_leeds_bradford_airport_parking_charges_1_3408810

Kite2010

The airline companies have been trying to reduce the amount they have to pay to the airports using the threat of "reduce the fees or we go elsewhere", so the airports have to recover the money lost some-how & dropping-off/picking-up charges is an easy money spinner.

liam8282

Kite2010 wrote: »

The airline companies have been trying to reduce the amount they have to pay to the airports using the threat of "reduce the fees or we go elsewhere", so the airports have to recover the money lost some-how & dropping-off/picking-up charges is an easy money spinner.

I don't think that is the case at LBA, up until about 2 years ago Jet2 was the only budget airline to operate from LBA, then along came Ryanair, so if anything there will have been increased competition rather than the airlines holding the airport to ransom.

The same doesn't really apply for Charter flights or holiday companies using the airport, as all costs are factored into the package holiday.

I agree with what was said before, it is all to do with the Airport maximising profit. They own the land, so why not charge people to use it? They have to pay for their new ANPR car parking system somehow.

pendulum

dmg24 wrote: »

I don't know of any airports that do not charge now.

Gatwick... Heathrow...

alternate

Storck wrote: »

At Leeds/Bradford you can still park in the long stay car park for a couple of hours for free so the secret is to pull into there to get dropped off and just walk up to the front door. Save yourself the couple of quid and walk up the hill. Easy.

It is 60 minutes free now according to the website.

It is a long time since I used LBA but I don't remember the long stay car parks being quite that close to the terminal. Definitely within a 5 minute walk as the site is pretty small but they even offer a shuttle bus for the lazy/encumbered so it can't be quite that close.

David_Mullins

goater78 wrote: »

i think manchester only charges on pick up not drop off and you can get around that by picking up at the airport train station.

I dropped my son off at Manchester airport three weeks ago, and when he returned, last week, I text him on his mobile and told him to make his way to the 'departures' drop-off zone, and I collected him there, free of charge.

John_Jizzle

i usually go from leeds and get dropped off / picked up on the main road - its only 2 minutes walk to the front door and saves some money.