Horrendous airport drop off charges

[Cardhey]

AIBU to be pleased that the UK consumer watchdog is investigation the ridiculous drop off fees at airports and the increases over the past few years. It’s just a con. Hope they get banned.

Everyone hates it , people feel exploited and cab drivers are tired of having to justify it too, but a bit like standing charges for gas and electricity, it’ll only go up and people will have to take it on the chin because there isn’t always another option if you want to go abroad on holiday.

I agree. Dropping someone off at an airport isn't an unreasonable thing to do. It's no different to dropping off at a school, or a workplace or a station. In fact it's often more challenging a journey for people because of luggage. It's a ridiculous and greedy charge. By all means charge for stopping for more than 5 or 10 minutes, but to just drop off a passenger is unreasonable. Or make the charge a realistic amount. Gatwick doubled the charge from £5 to £10 earlier this year. That's just greed.

Parking at airports is huge too, but that feels a bit more justified even if it’s ouch when you pay it.
It’s all a racket with the drop off fees though.

Blimey, if you think holidays and flying is expensive now don't look too far back and brace yourself for what is probably coming down the road....

I know £10 is steep but for a family that's maybe £2 or £3 a head, and they'll spend more than that on the first round of drinks in the holiday hotel...

Yes airports try to make a profit but it does cost to keep the airport running. Ultimately that will be borne by the passengers, through some combination of charges at the airport and/or increased ticket price for the flight.

I still feel ( and it is only my opinion ) that those in power do not want people flying or having holidays or any fun and will price it out. I hope I’m wrong and they realize that this industry brings in a lot of revenue , but also there is another agenda of climate change and the cost of fuel and running these airports that will make them keep on putting the prices up out of reach of ordinary people to stop people going abroad.

Last time we went the taxi had to run a gauntlet of cars swerving to the curb and people dragging suitcases along the narrow gravelly lanes around the airport as people tried to avoid the charges. The airport has put boulders, barriers and signs up to try and prevent it but it hasn't stopped people and has just made it more dangerous.

Airports have train stations

No one needs to fly, it's a luxury. If it costs an extra tenner so what?

Can I alert everyone to the fact that Stansted is now TEN POUNDS, I’m sure it was £7 just the other week. Robbery!

It is bad. Cab drivers are getting a lot of abuse because they can’t stop at the retail park near the airport to drop off as they are then fined and cctv picks up anyone with cases. It’s all so greedy and unnecessary.

Lots of flights are early and the trains and buses are not running at those times. It’s not always easy getting transport to airports and buses are also unreliable too.
The ones putting the prices up know all this.

Some airports have train stations, some don't.

We had to take a park and ride when we collected our DD from Heathrow in the summer as the short stay car park was shut. It was all free and was very smooth. First experience.

When we go on hols we use Maple Parking with a discount code. No extra charges. Always very smooth.

When I drop my parents my mum has a blue badge so no charges (and my car doesn’t pay Ulez)

But yes - the profits must be absolutely eye watering. So it’s a good thing.

And I suspect to target uber, etc drivers who probably used to hog up the pick up and drop off lanes waiting for good jobs.

Even in London, with excellent public transport, for an early flight there isn’t a way to get to the airport other than three night buses starting at 2am to get there for 5.30am. So I’m driving my DD and her friend and paying the drop off fee, as I don’t think night buses are safe for 14 year olds.

I always use public transport when I can, and agree a lot of people drive when it’s not really necessary, but very early or late flights do make it necessary. I think they should charge less for drop off overnight when traffic isn’t a problem, and more during times when the airport has a good range of public transport options.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1vh1axr/airport_dropoff_pcn_fine_waived_requesting_id/

https://news.sky.com/story/the-loophole-that-could-help-you-avoid-parking-fines-13494194

DP told me recently about his colleague (someone who knows his stuff when it comes to byelaws and so on) that he had got his drop off fee waived. The above article and Reddit excerpt explain it much better than I can- it might be worth looking into!

I think airports will struggle to control the flow if it’s free or cheap. I fly nearly every week for work (unfortunately) and often these areas are congested as is.

I imagine if it’s a revenue challenge we will end up paying through airlines anyway, but would probably feel the sting anyway.

Belfast City has a free option which is only a 4m walk from the terminal - dreamy little airport - but it’s tiny.

Yabu.

Anything that needs to be restricted in its demand to make it work has to have either punituve costs or a complex system of permits graded by urgency of need, or it gets overwhelmed.

The result of these charges being abolished would be a massive increase in drop-off traffic resulting in traffic jams that cause you to miss your flights. Everyone loses.

The charges force people to think carefully about their options and use shuttlebus services and other sensible ways to avoid them whereever possible so that the dropoff traffic is limited to a manageable number.

I live a 15 minute drive from the airport. To arrive by train in time for my 7am flight to Spain next Saturday, I would need to get the 11.59pm train Friday night, arriving at 1.44am, having done a change in the nearest city and a 20 minute walk (at midnight) through the city centre to the other station. Hardly reasonable. So yes, there is a train station, both near my house and at my local (international) airport but it isn't easy to get to from one to other.

It all seemed to flow well before the charges were introduced, maybe warning of cameras and charges if you go over the ten minutes or five minutes or whatever it is, but with so much tech around it would be easy to make sure people play by the rules without having to charge them ten pounds or whatever.

Our local airports had to give reduced drop of fees via an annual pass to taxi and Uber drivers as they refused to collect people. Caused absolute carnage and they ended up having to come up with a different solution to get them to come back

Anyone who can afford to fly can afford to take public transport or a taxi. If they absolutely must be "dropped off",they can also afford to reimburse the driver - it's just a payment for convenience, and it's not compulsory to use this service. It's just business - that's how business works.

£8 for up to 30 mins at my local airport, even if you drive only along the pick up/drop off lane and are there less than 5 mins. Cameras in all the local roads/car parks and fines for using them. It's ridiculous.

It’s these big business that are slowly killing off the travel industry. It may take years, but eventually holidays will be priced out of existence and that’s what governments want. As I said before, it’s only my opinion , but there is an agenda here I am convinced by it.

There is always a free option.
On the times I've chosen to use paid drop off it's now much better.
In the free drop off days it was always chaos, super busy and a big queue with randomly parked cars from the people who though "drop off" also included see you through check in, have a quick coffee and a wee then wander back to the car. It's changed it to, drive up, drop off, drive off Much better all round