Airports Charging for Pick Ups - What can we do about it?

bettingmark

This has been a bee in my bonnet for quite sometime but I've decided to try and do something about it.

At my local airport, Belfast International, gone are the days when we could pick-up and set-down as we please without much hassle other than the usual police officer asking us to move on if we sat idle for too long.

Now, there is NO facility to pick-up passengers from this particular airport for free. A new system was implemented around 18 months a go that allowed a ten minute period in the 'pick-up area' free of charge. Now this jesture has been taken away due to, and I quote - "abuse of the system" - i.e. the airport realised that pick-ups are an easy way to make money and airport users have no choice in the matter due to the structure of the airport carpark and set down areas now. Whilst it is only "50p" for 10 minutes, surely this sort of system is ridiculous. (And it's £3 for 45 minutes in the pick-up area)

I ask you Martin and the MSE team - What can be done to confront this madness!!

moonrakerz

Well, it is really par for the course in this over-taxed and overcharged country.

We motorists are always 'abusing the system', and therefore must be made to pay for it. Only last month my local council did away with the one hour free parking in the town car parks and put in a 50p charge. This was only to be expected, with huge numbers of motorists abusing this ' generous concession' - I must admit I was as guilty as the rest, I have been known to park for free for up to 59 minutes !
(This is the same council that is opposing a proposed Asda store on the outskirts of town, because it will take trade from the town centre !)

To be honest there isn't much you can do about it - go to another airport ? they will soon latch onto the same racket - get public transport ? - are you that desperate ?

Airports are especially greedy when it comes to dealing with the car, last month I was 'moved on' at Gatwick at 0530 whilst waiting for my valet parking driver. 3 laps of the North Terminal, hardly saving the planet !

budgetflyer

Apart from the really big ones, it should be very possible to pick up and drop off B4 the barriers.At worse passengers will maybe have to walk 2 or 300 yards more than B4
Having been to Belfast International- its not really a big airport, this shouldnt be a problem.

photohappy

i was at aldergrove airport leaving someone there to get a flight
and i found it one of the most deceptively marked for carparks
there are no signs at the entrance to tell you exactly what carpark
is for what purpose and the cost of each carpark, also where the paystation is for the setdown carpark, avoid taking the first carpark on the left as it is
expensive 5 pounds for as little as 1minute, which i would not pay, i dont recommend that others do the same. i drove out of the carpark as i did not use it for parking due to the deceptive way i had been misinformed, and misled
by the signs, and parked in another carpark this cost me 1 pound as i was there for a couple of minutes.
i will not be using any of the carparks ever again, but will consider the carpark before the airport.
i have been informed it is just as good as the airport carparks

hammy_the_hammer

liverpool john lennon airport have put a £1 charge on you taking a black cab from the airport.
at the end of the day my attitude is becoming don't spend anything at all at the airport ...the franchises will leave and the bits the airport make money from will evaporate.
it's just plain greed

Dylanwing

I worked at Bristol Airport for a while and saw the other side. The Low Cost Airlines are driving a hard bargain, so in order to attract these carriers, the Airports need to make money from other areas, particularly parking. In fairness to Bristol, they are better than others in many ways, and have a good pick-ip area, but far too aggressive towards off-site operators. In my experience, nearly all of the problems with pick up or drop off was caused by inconsiderate drivers who thought that blocking all the traffic for 10 minutes was perfectly acceptable as they dropped people off, had a chat, had a wander, had another chat etc.

fudgem

We now have a system in place for picking folks up at our local airport (Leeds/Bradford) but I don't know whether it would work anywhere else.

The person to be picked up sends a text when they are actually waiting outside, and the 'picker up' sets off from his free parking place 5 minutes away and just does a drive past pick up

It all depends on whether you have any free parking close by

SPANIEL36

At Birmingham they now charge a pound for dropping off and picking up!!

Voyager2002

Parking facilities cost money to maintain. And they use up land which has a very high cost, and could be put to alternative, profitable uses.

So why on earth should they be offered for free? After all, not many airports provide free buses into town, but that is also something that costs money and would be convenient for passengers.

Basically, if you can afford an air ticket you can afford to pay for parking, or (even better) use public transport to get to and from the airport. If that is too much money for you, then stay at home.

dmg24

So why on earth should they be offered for free?

Spot on. Airports are businesses, so why should they not charge?

The alternative is that they pass the cost on to the airlines, and then the airlines pass the cost back to the consumer.

But then if they did that, I am sure someone would moan about it!

hammy_the_hammer

i like your style but airports are stopping people from even approaching some airports ....the choice is to park or to park at which point they charge you.
if you go on the principle of charging ...how about the loos ? the walkways? the seats ?
the greedy b's see 2 million passengers a year going through the airport and reckon on squeezing another pound out of everyone of them gives them £2 million in the back pocket.
monopoly conditions apply for a lot of regional airports and hopefully someone will take them to task for it