[Anonymous]

[BusinessTraveller]

We’ve just published a piece on a planned drop-off fee at Edinburgh airport, and we’d be interested to hear readers’ thoughts on the matter.

Have you experienced new fees being introduced at any other UK airports? Is it a fair way of the airports recouping costs, or should they make the airlines pay?

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/edinburgh-passengers-urged-to-sign-drop-off-fee

[BABenji]

These fees are most frustrating. At Stansted there was a 100% increase from last summer to this, for your 15 minute allocation for collection. Thankfully, it is still free to drop off.

The consiquences? Cars parked up on the side of the road in the lead up to the airport, which is of no doubt a security concern. People standing at all sorts of points along the roads surrounding the car park so their loved ones/taxi drivers can avoid the £2 fee, but only slow things down for everyone else as they stop on a main road to allow their passengers to board.

I haven’t flown out of Luton since the fee was first introduced, but I understand it led to all sorts of chaos there and it will do so everywhere it is introduced.

The congestion charge is rightly cited as a great example of what happens. All the roads around the zone were packed with people trying to get to their destination without entering the zone.

Yes, it’s only a pound; but what do you get for your pound? The right to deliver someone to a facility they have already paid to use through their purchase of an airline ticket. Very poor show.

[continentalclub]

Newcastle Airport has recently introduced paid drop-off, following a failed attempt to do so a couple of years ago.

Originally, there was no provision whatsoever for free drop-off, which led to a huge outcry. This time, they have demarked an area of a car park beyond the drop-off zone, beyond the short stay and just before the long stay car park, where dropoffs can be undertaken free of charge. The passenger must walk a considerable distance to reach the terminal building however, and what provision there is for the elderly, the infirm or the disabled I really have no idea.

The airport has also now installed a machine at the access point to the security fast-track channel, from which £3-per-person tickets can be purchased to use the (theoretically) quicker lane. However, the position of the security area itself means that the actual queue length for ‘slow-track’ can’t be seen from the commencement point of lane segregation and, anecdotally, there is a rather dubious queue-management system in operation in slow-track, which can give rise to an apparent backlog when nonesuch exists.

Once through security, passengers wishing to reach the gates must actually go through, not past, the duty free shop, with displays arranged in such a way that it is impossible not to be diverted from a direct route.

Personally, I find their strategy patronising, cynical and downright distasteful, to be perfectly honest, and it’s one that actively discourages me from using the airport when there’s a choice available.

[NTarrant]

I wonder how long it will be before they start charging to use the toilet at the airport!

[PaulJennings]

Or a coin-operated turnstile at the start of every escalator?

It’s an example of the worst kind of aggressive, money-grabbing behaviour which gives air travel companies a bad name, sometimes justifiably, often not. The petition is a great idea and should happen more often. Passengers could also organise a coordinated boycott of the airport’s shopping mall.

[Gin&Tonic]

We must as travellers stand up against the airports and simply not pay, so bring chaos to the feeder roads if that’s what it creates, but this is just insane that you are expected to pay simply to drop off a revenue passenger simply because the road is adjacent to the terminal. Where should the road be?

Some time ago I was departing Norwich airport and couldn’t get to the security screening without paying the Norwich Airport development fee, which at the time was £3.00
I was outraged as I knew nothing of the levy and if I didn’t pay I wouldn’t get my flight simple as that. I wrote to the Airport MD & Chairman, the council, the CAA the Minister for Transport, the MP for the area and demanded my money back, because as far as I was concerned as a visitor to Norwich how would I know about the fee and therefore the practise was unjust and didn’t give me the information for choice as to how I would or wouldn’t travel in and out of Norwich. I eventually got a refund from the airport but the practise continues to this day and does catch many a visitor unawares.

[Binman62]

I have to agree, the money grabbing schemes such as this are outrageous. The problem is people pay them and often, such as the Norwich issue referred to, you cannot avoid them and the appear without warning. Many years ago departure taxes were common overseas and in some Asian countries the practice continues.
I noticed last week at LGW that trolleys now require a £1 just like supermarkets which you get back if you take the trolley back. But even this I object too. The fees we have paid as part of our fare are huge, often more than £10 per passenger to use the facility. Why? Especially when they are over and above the security charges. You do not seem to able to get refunds even when the service provided is shocking such as buses to aircraft faulty lifts escalators and horrific security queues. At least the airlines have some controls placed on them such as the EU directive etc. We need the same for airports.

[SimonRowberry]

I work closely with BHX, where drop-off fees were (I believe) first introduced in the UK and where a fee is also charged for baggage trolleys (which are not refunded when you take the trolley back).

I am personally opposed to drop-off fees. If my wife picks me up from a flight, and that flight is delayed, she will drive around the strategic highway network for a while, rather than incur massive parking costs. Given that everyone else is in the same position at BHX, this conflicts somewhat with low-carbon objectives!

However, BHX will point out that they are a commercial company, with a 51% private sector stake, and their duty is to make a profit. They therefore have to balance commercial interests with passenger convenience. I have my own (very strong) views on this matter, but given my closeness to the issue, it would be inappropriate for me to make further comment!

Suffice it to say that most major UK airports have to balance the above roles and drop-off fees are ‘easy’ sources of revenue.

Simon

[BusinessTraveller]

Update: As we suspected the £1 proposed drop-off fee is not set in stone.

According to a report in today’s The Scotsman, the head of Edinburgh airport Gordon Dewar says that the proposed £1 drop-off fee might be raised in future. Scottish government officials have suggested, he says, “[that Edinburgh airport] may need to charge more to change [passenger] behaviour.”

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Raising-1-dropoff-fee-can39t.6415327.jp

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