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Airport Charges to be reviewed:
One can always make more money. No one who has ever lived can create more time.
Comments
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Definitely long overdue.
Anyone who has flown to Spain and had experience of car pick up/drop off will know the difference between the UK & Spain is like Day/Night. Alicante airport for example.......you get 15 minutes free for drop off. If you exceed the 15 minutes the charges are very, very small.
3 -
Completely agree.
Newcastle Airport, a relatively small airport reasonably far out in the countryside, used to have a 15 minute free drop-off at their short stay 2 car park (about a 5 minute walk from the terminal), but this was recently axed.
Their "express parking" right outside the terminal was £1 for the first 10 minutes and used to have a couple of minutes grace period. It's now £6 the second you drive in (even if you don't even stop the car or drop anyone off), and if there is a small delay, and you dare to spend 11 minutes it's £12!
Neither of the above were ever busy, or congested with any queues when the free facility was in place.
Most airports are even using the environmental excuse to justify the charges, but each charge increase results in dozens more cars driving around the local area in circles, or sitting with their engines running in adjacent layby's so they can drive off when the patrols come round to fine them or move them on.
The local authority has had to put parking restrictions in all the nearby residential areas too, which they wouldn't have needed to if the charges were reasonable and proportionate (or free) as all the drivers picking people up would be sitting in the car park with their engines off!
Newcastle Airport even justifies the charges by claiming they are investing them to bring more planes to their airport (planes which will burn more fuel in a 50 second takeoff than a car would do sitting at idle for over 20 days)!
• The rich buy assets.
• The poor only have expenses.
• The middle class buy liabilities they think are assets.5 -
Reviewed.
Which means what?
We looked at the prices and they seem expensive so please charge less?
I agree that drop off/pick up prices are high but not sure what can be done to force private businesses to charge less.
Things that are different: draw & drawer, brought & bought, loose & lose, dose & does, payed & paid0 -
These are airports providing a public service, it is not truly private land, but subject to statutory provisions. Change bylaws and presto.
If I were PM I would simply make a maximum cap of £3 with an additional requirement that
a. both online and onsite electronic payments are permitted (there are 10 mins after all).
b. Payments can be made up to 7 days
This would reduce forgotten payments. There is I fear an intentional design that some consumers will forget to pay so as to levy more PCNs.
5 -
If airports want charges, they can have them but they must also provide a free drop off/pick up car park area no more than a few hundred metres from the terminal (not a bus ride from a car park miles away).
Passengers then have a choice.
1 -
I love the way they use the "environmental" excuse at an airport that burns millions of gallons of fossil fuels a year, and where planes dump excess aviation fuel to lighten the load for landing, just another excuse, it's all about profit.
Ironically:
For small planes (such as a two-seater or light six-seater aircraft), daily apron or tie-down parking fees at regional or medium airports can range from around £5 to £12 per day, and some smaller aircraft even get a few hours of free parking.
A 24-hour stay in a short-stay or multi-storey car park for a car frequently costs between £22 and £51+ (and much more if booked last-minute or at major hub airports like Heathrow or Manchester).
1 -
It was said on TV this morning that Covid cost airports a lot of money hence they are playing catchup now
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Gatwick Airport generates just £5.46 actual profit per passenger this is exactly why they try ever thing they can to generate revenue
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Interesting fact thanks. That's still almost a quarter of a billion profit per year though with the 2025 turnover of 42.8 million passengers.
Certainly not to be sniffed at, but as Mr Burns famously said on The Simpsons: "Ah yes, but I would trade it all for that little bit more!" 😁
• The rich buy assets.
• The poor only have expenses.
• The middle class buy liabilities they think are assets.2
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