22 out of 27 UK airports charge for drop off (or force you to use facilities needing a bus)
https://www.aph.com/community/holid...o-50-revealed-at-uk-airports-find-yours-here/
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[Finance] gatwick drop-off fee £5
- Thread starter wardy wonder land
- Start date
22 out of 27 UK airports charge for drop off (or force you to use facilities needing a bus)
https://www.aph.com/community/holid...o-50-revealed-at-uk-airports-find-yours-here/
Seagull58
In the Algarve
Drop them at the LT car park…..no more difficult for you, no charge and 5 mins on a bus for them
Yes, it is a reasonable workaround but, nevertheless, a workaround because they have imposed a charge for something which is not a service provided by them, has no cost to them and which used to be free.
Seagull58
In the Algarve
So it is now a pan-UK scam.
It’s a charge for using their facilities (which do have a cost to them) and for your added convenience, and they’ve provided a reasonable option if you don’t want to pay.
Seagull58
In the Algarve
The driver is not using their facilities. The passenger is using the facilities to fly and return through the terminal and is paying through the flight ticket and for any goods and services bought in the terminal. The roads are there to service the terminal, not to enable car drop-off. The security staff are provided to maintain security in and around the terminal, not to support car drop-off. The 5 pounds charge is unjustifiable on cost-benefit grounds.
Seagull58
In the Algarve
Possibly? If your passenger is as tight as you I imagine they will bring their own sandwiches and a bottle of pop to consume at the airport.
I was speaking hypothetically.
Sounds like you are pushing for car drop offs to be stopped all together.
Suspect that’s next….quite a few airports doing that already. Taxis-only, cars having to go into ST car parks.
Seagull58
In the Algarve
You are seriously misinterpreting what I'm saying. There is no justification for charging 5 pounds to drop off at the terminal. It costs the airport nothing on top of costs they already incur and services they already deliver, which they would have to continue incurring and delivering whether they made drop-off free once more or whether they banned it completely.
If the roads aren’t there to enable car drop-off, you shouldn’t be using them
You’re using private roads that someone has had to build and maintain, provide staff, keep lit etc etc. I also suspect the security staff have some responsibility for keeping an eye on cars coming through, who is stopping (dropping off passengers) etc - so yes, there absolutely is a cost to allowing drop-off.
Using that argument they shouldn’t be charging for parking either ? When I park, it’s to use the airport
The real scam at airports is parents with children getting priority boarding on Easyjet flights for FREE. A service others have to pay for.
doogie004
Well-known member
Well Heathrow charge as well as do every other airport nowadays
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Seagull58
In the Algarve
Using that argument they shouldn’t be charging for parking either ? When I park, it’s to use the airport
I have no problem with them charging for parking. They provide land, equipment and services specifically for parking and there is a cost to that. The car parking facilities are provided only for car parking and they have no other use. A very different scenario to the drop-off charge, which is there purely as a money-making exercise and where no service is provided. All they are doing is giving the driver the "right" to stop for a minute or two outside the terminal, for which they are charging 150 pounds per hour per driver (based on a 2 minutes stop)..
Seagull58
In the Algarve
None of the airports I use (Faro, Lisbon, Bordeaux, Johannesburg) charge for drop-off or pick-up. It is a scam.
Baldseagull
Well-known member
But it is at cost to them, West Sussex will not tarmac their roads, repair the pavements etc. and the airport has to staff the area to ensure people are not clogging it up by hanging around out there for ages waiting to pick up people. I don't get why you think it is without cost to the airport? I don't like having to pay for something that used to be free either, and maybe would argue that it is a cost that they could absorb, but it also encourages the use of public transport, which is a good thing.
Airports have different business models. I'm pretty sure Faro and Lisbon charge airlines considerably more to land there than most UK airports.
But the issue is fundamentally as I said in my previous post - UK airports generally make a loss on the "aeronautical" side of their business, and a profit on the "commercial" side. Market forces mean you can't always charge for a product/service in direct relation to the cost of providing it. In my experience, most UK airports are run very efficiently. This means generally airlines get very good deals, which in turn means we (the average UK punter) has a huge choice of destinations to fly to. You have to look at the whole thing in the round. And, as others have pointed out, if you don't want to pay a fiver to drop someone off, there are plenty of free alternatives.
Do you get equally arsey in Bordeaux cafes when they charge you more to sit on the terrace than inside?
It’s not that different at all - you’re using their road, on their land, being supervised by their staff to drop off your passenger in the most convenient place possible. Anyway, as and when the airport gets back to something like normal capacity the charge will be a good thing. Pre-covid, picking up and dropping off was a nightmare sometimes with too many people using it, staying too long waiting for pickups etc etc.
Seagull58
In the Algarve
The airport costs for roads, security etc are all there whether or not you drop-off at the terminal. There is no cost to the airport specific to car drop-off. I have explained this in more detail in earlier posts.