Is there any other airport other than UK ones that rip off the flying public like this ?
There's now a £3 for 5 mins and £4 for 10 mins fee for those being dropped off outside the terminals.

Newcastle do the same

Not sure outside the UK, i know BFS charges £1

Yes, I know about UK ones, just wondered if it's only UK airports having this rip-off.

Opportunistic money grab, although when GLA introduced it, I was amazed at how many airport fan boys defended it as fair game. Needless to say the travelling public were not amused but the fuss appears to have died down after an initial backlash, various threats of petitions and boycotts etc. As I said at the time, imagine the fuss if your local out of town shopping mall started charging you to drop off, or if your doctor started charging for dropping off outside the hospital ? Slippery slopes always begin somewhere...

Never heard of any airport doing it. I guess UK airports are the only ones. FRA has first 10 minutes free then its 1 euro for another 10 minutes.
Paying to drop off passengers is idiotic.

TC957 wrote:

Yes, I know about UK ones, just wondered if it's only UK airports having this rip-off.

Over here, BOS studied the idea based on the experience of the UK airports, as they see themselves as Green and want to push folks away from just driving in. However for right now, they have rejected it in favor of other ideas that are easier to implement with the space they have. Doesn’t mean they won’t do it in the future. But folks over here have taken notice.

We recently flew out of Stansted, I'm pretty sure they have it there as well.

It's just another rip off.

DFW does as well, it's like $2 for the first 8 minutes. The roads are part of the tollway.

CRL in Belgium has a minimum fee of €2, good for 30 minutes

The only way to avoid that (while also avoiding public transport) is to drop off/pick up pax about a 2km walk from the terminal building, and there is a surprising number of people who do that, just to save their €2

Paying to drop off is not a rip off, it's a sensible method of limiting private traffic and unnecessary journeys (drop off / collections require twice the amount of journeys as parking or even a taxi - which will collect another passenger likely) and will encourage use of tram/train/bus/cycling...

DFW's access road can double as a tollway, but it has a unique pricing model to favor people picking up and dropping off over the people just using it as a highway (aka "pass throughs"). If you are in and out in under 8 minutes, it's $4; 8-30 minutes, it's $2; 30-120 minutes, $3. All and all, I'd say it's pretty reasonable.

JibberJim wrote:

Paying to drop off is not a rip off, it's a sensible method of limiting private traffic and unnecessary journeys (drop off / collections require twice the amount of journeys as parking or even a taxi - which will collect another passenger likely) and will encourage use of tram/train/bus/cycling...

Only if you live in Manchester or in close proximity to MAN. For folk such as myself who live slightly further afield but falls into the catchment area of both MAN and LPL as they're more or less equidistant from my house, getting the train as an alternative is no good if there's no trains that get you there in time for your flight (particularly the first round of morning departures) or, in my case at least, having recently lost a direct service to Manchester Airport. Later this year, roadworks along a part of the M6 which I have to use to get to MAN start this September for 3 years and is for the implementation of a 'smart' motorway much like what's nearly finished around the M60 in Manchester.

JibberJim wrote:

Paying to drop off is not a rip off, it's a sensible method of limiting private traffic and unnecessary journeys (drop off / collections require twice the amount of journeys as parking or even a taxi - which will collect another passenger likely) and will encourage use of tram/train/bus/cycling...

[threeid][/threeid]

Assuming the airport already has a coherent surface access strategy of course. But how many families of four with two weeks luggage for that holiday in the sun have you seen cycling to the airport ? A taxi drop off is really no different to being dropped off by family and/or friends in a private vehicle. Drop off IMHO is not the problem in terms of private vehicles, it's the pick up mob who clog airport forecourts and approach roads waiting to pick their nearest and dearest up from arriving flights, often arriving way too early and just sitting in their still running vehicles, causing congestion and pollution.

Let's face it, airports are really still just large out of town developments that with drop off charges are adopting the attitude of city centre businesses. Airports that have no train link, tram link, or feasible surface connection to adjacent city centres really shouldn't be charging the general public for the 'luxury' of simply arriving there. All 'IMHO' of course...

Luton definitely has had it for a few years

Boeing74741R wrote:

JibberJim wrote:

Paying to drop off is not a rip off, it's a sensible method of limiting private traffic and unnecessary journeys (drop off / collections require twice the amount of journeys as parking or even a taxi - which will collect another passenger likely) and will encourage use of tram/train/bus/cycling...

Only if you live in Manchester or in close proximity to MAN. For folk such as myself who live slightly further afield but falls into the catchment area of both MAN and LPL as they're more or less equidistant from my house, getting the train as an alternative is no good if there's no trains that get you there in time for your flight (particularly the first round of morning departures) or, in my case at least, having recently lost a direct service to Manchester Airport. Later this year, roadworks along a part of the M6 which I have to use to get to MAN start this September for 3 years and is for the implementation of a 'smart' motorway much like what's nearly finished around the M60 in Manchester.

You sound like you live close to me - Wigan?! We are preparing to face the same misery! I use T3 a fair bit and will be instructing the wife to drop me near the airport pub in future.

JibberJim wrote:

Paying to drop off is not a rip off, it's a sensible method of limiting private traffic and unnecessary journeys (drop off / collections require twice the amount of journeys as parking or even a taxi - which will collect another passenger likely) and will encourage use of tram/train/bus/cycling...

So to be clear, this is about limiting the amount of private traffic and driving pax to use either private (taxi) or public transportation, okay, fine. If you want to generate income for private vendors (taxi's) and increase use of public transportation in the name of going green, why not simply ban access to the airport by private transportation, versus the discrimination which you do not want to call a rip off or money grab.
Private citizens pay taxes for their vehicles (just like taxi drivers) but taxi drivers also pay additional government fees for their "taxi franchise", unfortunately, citizens only pay whatever additional taxes the government requires to implement public transportation, health care, etc etc etc.

I flew out of Southampton last month (SOU). 1GBP for a friend to drive up and drop us off.

Totally shocking, but, that's how you Brits roll sometimes. Love those taxes!

I don't think paying it would be as bad if needed, but to pay it at MAN? It takes like 15 minutes to go through traffic to actually reach the drop off point. Some people even get out and walk it.

JannEejit wrote:

JibberJim wrote:

Drop off IMHO is not the problem in terms of private vehicles, it's the pick up mob who clog airport forecourts and approach roads waiting to pick their nearest and dearest up from arriving flights, often arriving way too early and just sitting in their still running vehicles, causing congestion and pollution.

Need a purpose-assigned `cell phone parking lot', free or otherwise cheap. With free WiFi.
Even reasonably small airports can use them....
http://stjohnsairport.com/outside-terminal/?hilite=cell+phone

Not helped by some Airports taking a cut of premium public transport fares at the same time. A few I've enountered

Edinburgh Trams - £1.50 for any journey up to the airport perimiter - £6 to be dropped in the airport grounds.
Nice: €4 for a day ticket valid anywhere except the airport - trips to/from the airport are $6 single
Bristol Airport to Bath is £20! Compares badly with the Falcon coach to from Exeter which is £16 return for a 70 mile trip! The bus to the city is £11.
Brussels has an extra fee for trains to/from the airport.
National Express will charge a premium for airport stops (from here to Heathrow is £36 return, central London on the same coach is typically £15)
Luton kicking the established Greenline 757 to London off airport property because they wouldn't give them a big enough cut of fares (that eventally went to court and the airport lost)

In my old hometown at Wuhan, they charge a fee for entering the airport and another fee for exiting the airport regardless of reason.

us330 wrote:

DFW's access road can double as a tollway, but it has a unique pricing model to favor people picking up and dropping off over the people just using it as a highway (aka "pass throughs"). If you are in and out in under 8 minutes, it's $4; 8-30 minutes, it's $2; 30-120 minutes, $3. All and all, I'd say it's pretty reasonable.

There's a simple workaround for a free PU/DO at DFW -- their rental car center is outside of the toll gates and has free shuttles to all terminals. Me, I'd only suggest this if I was the one getting PU/DO and was flying solo, but at least that option exists for now.

STN does. £3, I think. For which we paid for the delightful pleasure of sitting in a queue for nearly 40 minutes to get to the drop off area. Awful airport; every where one turns one feels one is being fleeced to pay for something or spend money. Little wonder my trip from there recently was my first trip from STN in something like 5 years, even though it is my closest airport. Ghastly place.

LTN is £3 for 10 mins and £1 per minute thereafter.

BHX have a drop off car park which is free for 30 minutes, but it's 5 minutes walk from the terminals.

If you want to use the nearer premium drop off, its £2 for 10 minutes.

At least they give you a choice.

BHX have a drop off car park which is free for 30 minutes, but it's 5 minutes walk from the terminals.

If you want to use the nearer premium drop off, its £2 for 10 minutes.

At least they give you a choice.

That's a shame ! How is one supposed to arrive at the airport by his/her own means ? People should get off the cars before the drop off area and don't accept this shame

BHXLOVER wrote:

BHX have a drop off car park which is free for 30 minutes, but it's 5 minutes walk from the terminals.

If you want to use the nearer premium drop off, its £2 for 10 minutes.

Very interesting. I flew BHX - HAJ recently and the driver of the hired car in Birmingham dropped us off quite a long distance away from the terminal. I thought it was because of construction work on the site but now I know he only wanted to save the "drop off fee".

BHXLOVER wrote:

BHX have a drop off car park which is free for 30 minutes, but it's 5 minutes walk from the terminals.

If you want to use the nearer premium drop off, its £2 for 10 minutes.

At least they give you a choice.

I'm usually travelling alone so I get the wife to drop me off by the train station and then get the people mover from there. It's just as quick.

There is or at least was a layby near the car hire huts which people used as a drop off and pick up point. The last time I walked past the area, it was covered with cctv warnings.

I think Black Country folk are very fortunate that BHX is extremely easy to access via road and public transport. The new express buses into the city look like they're quite snazzy too and according to nxbus, it's a little over £2 into town which is a bargain.

DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) has a $2 drop off fee, with the airport road being marked as a "toll way". Personally, I think it is an absurd act for the airport and State to both make money from a vehicle quickly passing through.

voodoo wrote:

JannEejit wrote:

JibberJim wrote:

Drop off IMHO is not the problem in terms of private vehicles, it's the pick up mob who clog airport forecourts and approach roads waiting to pick their nearest and dearest up from arriving flights, often arriving way too early and just sitting in their still running vehicles, causing congestion and pollution.

Need a purpose-assigned `cell phone parking lot', free or otherwise cheap. With free WiFi.
Even reasonably small airports can use them....
http://stjohnsairport.com/outside-terminal/?hilite=cell+phone

At least JFK Airport in NYC has a free cell phone parking lot with a 60 minute limit. It's about a 5-minute drive to the central terminal area from it.

FabDiva wrote:

Not helped by some Airports taking a cut of premium public transport fares at the same time. A few I've enountered

Edinburgh Trams - £1.50 for any journey up to the airport perimiter - £6 to be dropped in the airport grounds.
Nice: €4 for a day ticket valid anywhere except the airport - trips to/from the airport are $6 single
Bristol Airport to Bath is £20! Compares badly with the Falcon coach to from Exeter which is £16 return for a 70 mile trip! The bus to the city is £11.
Brussels has an extra fee for trains to/from the airport.
National Express will charge a premium for airport stops (from here to Heathrow is £36 return, central London on the same coach is typically £15)
Luton kicking the established Greenline 757 to London off airport property because they wouldn't give them a big enough cut of fares (that eventally went to court and the airport lost)

ATH airport. Buses cost 6€ one way, metro 10€ one way, taxis better forget them cause they are not the most...honest...

So basically if you want to travel for a weekend you are forced to pay at least 12€ to and from the airport. The airport is located 20km from the centre so not a big enough distance to justify the prices.

Heinkel wrote:

Very interesting. I flew BHX - HAJ recently and the driver of the hired car in Birmingham dropped us off quite a long distance away from the terminal. I thought it was because of construction work on the site but now I know he only wanted to save the "drop off fee".

I guess that's the consequence of having a drop-off fee. People don't drive all the way up to the point where you have to pay but drop off at alternative locations instead. Those locations aren't meant as drop-off zones but they're being used as such because they're free. I'd do the same.

I once heard a story about some guy who had dropped his kids off somewhere, I don't know where. When he left the drop-off zone he came to a barrier where he had to pay a certain amount of money into a machine as a drop-off fee. It was completely unmanned and there was nobody in sight. The guy happened to have a grinding machine in the back of his car. Out of frustration he grabbed the grinding machine and grinded the barrier. I don't know what happened to him after that, but I can understand his frustration.

Which was the nasty UK airport who started this?

LTN I think.

Bali/DPS in Indonesia, 4000 Rupiah to enter/exit the terminal drop off.

In UK airports, you have a choice of passenger fleecing. You can pay a drop off fee or go to an airport like LHR where you're fenced into a shopping mall while waiting for your flight.

Bonfire98A wrote:

us330 wrote:

DFW's access road can double as a tollway, but it has a unique pricing model to favor people picking up and dropping off over the people just using it as a highway (aka "pass throughs"). If you are in and out in under 8 minutes, it's $4; 8-30 minutes, it's $2; 30-120 minutes, $3. All and all, I'd say it's pretty reasonable.

There's a simple workaround for a free PU/DO at DFW -- their rental car center is outside of the toll gates and has free shuttles to all terminals. Me, I'd only suggest this if I was the one getting PU/DO and was flying solo, but at least that option exists for now.

The flip side of that is really obnoxious for those of us who frequently rent cars and go to points. Keith of DFW. The choices are either paying or taking the long way around. As Collin County grows, this problem will get worse.

ZRH does it as well ..soon the Swiss will charge you for breathing as well ---- the art of the ripoff was developed in die Schweiz

Armodeen wrote:

You sound like you live close to me - Wigan?! We are preparing to face the same misery! I use T3 a fair bit and will be instructing the wife to drop me near the airport pub in future.

Correct! When the roadworks are in full swing, LPL is going to be a serious alternative if the same route exists from there as I can avoid the roadworks by going down the M58/M57 instead.