Luton Airport car park drop off fee causes gridlock
07.07.09
Passengers taking flights from Luton Airport should give themselves plenty of time to reach the terminal while problems with the new 'access plan' - which includes a £1 drop-off levy - are ironed out.
The £1 ‘kiss and drop’ charge, a fee paid by drivers who drop off passengers in the drop off car park nearest the terminal, was introduced on July 1, and it is reported to be 'not running smoothly.' The Sunday Times reported that the airports new access plan caused gridlock on the approach road last week, as we predicted before it was introduced.
As taxis and private cars slowed to a crawl, passengers got out of the vehicles and walked to the terminal to make their flights. One driver, quoted by the newspaper, said: ‘It’s six in the morning on a weekday in term-time. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like when the schools break up? Thousands of people are going to miss their flights.’
The airport’s management admitted that it could take between a month and six months for the new scheme to bed in and the congestion to ease. A spokesman for the airport said: ‘We’re doing everything we can to persuade the public to decide where they want to drop off before reaching the terminal. We’ve got a lot of signposts up and there’s information all over our website.’
We still cannot believe that the introduced the fee, we cannot see things improving (drivers will always seek to avoid the fee, this will clog up the area around the terminal) and expect the airport to withdraw the fee when airlines realise that it is putting people off using the airport.
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