Leeds Bradford airport is raising its drop-off fee by 50 per cent from £2 to £3.
Larger vehicles, such as a minibus, will continue to pay £6, but this charge had already been increased by 300 per cent — from £2 to £6 — last year.
Taxi drivers are especially unhappy because until 2014 they paid a flat annual drop-off fee of £25. But that scheme was scrapped last year, resulting in their paying £2 per visit and now the higher £3 rate, reports the BBC.
The move comes a month after Aberdeen airport introduced its own drop-off charge, which elicited much negative feedback on our forum.
The news from Leeds Bradford confirms what our readers had suspected would happen after a short period of time — once an airport introduces such a fee, it is easy to increase the charge or change the terms.
One advantage, if you can call it such, is that the airport allows drivers a leisurely 30 minutes to drop-off their passengers and luggage.
By contrast, drivers who pay the minimum fee at Edinburgh, are granted only five minutes (see news, August 29).
Airports all over the UK justify drop-off charges by claiming they reduce congestion and assist security arrangements.
While that may be true, the other reason is that airports increasingly view these and other charges they levy, such as the so-called Airport Development Fee, as a useful revenue raiser.
It used to be the case that airports would raise sufficient funds with airline landing and handling fees. But the competitive market nowadays means that option is not always available.
