AIRPORT AILMENTS


GATWICK TAXIS TO WAIT IN AIRPORT CAR PARK FOR PASSENGERS


Taxi drivers say that their livelihoods are at risk because they are now being forced to pick up Gatwick Airport passengers from short-stay car parks. Cabbies have previ- ously been able to collect


customers


from the drop-off points at the North and South Terminals. But they have been told that they will now be fined if they do so - and instead must pay £3 to wait in a car park. Frustrated drivers say passengers will suffer as taxi firms will have to pass on the cost of parking to the customer. They say it is an


attempt to remove the competition for Air-port


Cars


Gatwick, the compa- ny which has a contract for operating taxis at the airport. The taxis from that firm will continue to wait in the ranks, but its fares from the air- port


are more


expensive than rival firms, meaning pas- sengers are set to pay more one way or another. Ryan Grice, an inde- pendent taxi driver from Ifield, told the Crawley News: “It’s ridiculous. I am dis- gusted - it’s a levy we will have to pass on to the customer. “In a time of reces- sion no one wants to


pay more for any- thing. “I will now have to try to explain to cus- tomers where to go in the airport. It is mad- ness.” Rauf Khan, manager of Alpha Cars, based in Crawley, called the change “pathetic”. He said: “Can you imagine taxi drivers having to go into a car park, find a space, then direct families with children and buggies and bags to the car? “It is a hassle enough to find your own car in a car park.” Crawley taxi drivers fear the new enforce- ment will seriously restrict their trade. On some days Mr


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Drive, can make six pickups from the air- port. The 41-year-old said: “People who work for the big companies at Manor Royal, nine times out of ten they go to the airport, even if it’s to catch the train. “For repeat business I always say ‘here’s my card’, but this will make it that much harder to pick people up.” Mr Khan attended a meeting at Gatwick Police Station bet- ween Gatwick Airport Ltd and taxi opera-


tors. He said: “We have said that we are will- ing to pay something to the airport to pro- vide us with a fixed place to pick up from. There is a lot of space. “They have still said we have to go into the car parks to pick people up, because the forecourts are congested, but con- gestion isn’t a prob- lem. “What they are doing to us will finish off our airport jobs.” A Gatwick Airport spokeswoman ex- plained that an exist-


Ring for your local dealer


ing policy is simply being enforced more strictly now, with traf- fic marshals having only recently started moving taxi drivers on if they are waiting where they should- n’t. She said: “It has always been official policy that Gatwick’s short-stay car parks should be used when picking up passen- gers by private car or taxi. “Due to increasing congestion at Gat- wick’s


forecourt


areas, we will now be enforcing this policy at both terminals.”


Holidaymakers are facing “kiss and drop” charges at nearly half the coun- try’s


airports,


according to figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority. The days of being able to drop a pas- senger off at


the


terminal are coming to an end as airports raise millions by forc- ing drivers to use short stay car parks. “Flying from the UK just


seems like


licence to rack up a string of add-on charges,” an AA spokesman told the Telegraph. “Regular who


travellers know the


charges may try to drop off as close as they can, and strug-


PAGE 48


MORE AIRPORTS CHARGING FOR ‘KISS AND DROP’ “It’s


gle along the road with their baggage like refugees.” The steepest charges are in London City Airport,


demands


£5.50 for only half an hour – more than twice the price of leaving a car in the heart of Mayfair. Stansted Airport has a £2 “express set- down” charge for ten minutes, while 15 minutes in the car park costs £3. Leeds Bradford imposes a £2 charge for half an hour’s parking and Bournemouth as a £2.50 fee for 30 min- utes. In all 15 out of 31 air- ports now impose some sort of charge for even the shortest stay, according to the


CAA figures. “If airports are wor- ried about space it seems perverse to make drivers spend time fumbling around for change when all they are trying to do is drop and go,” said Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation. “Airport


operators


seem to have a cul- ture of money first, passengers second. But if they made trav- ellers’


lives easier


rather than harder then surely they would do better busi- ness? Instead they seem intent on giving the kiss of death to any chance of a har- monious


relation-


ship.” Airlines already in-


censed by the land- ing charges they faced condemned the levy on passen- gers. “It is an appalling idea”, said Simon Buck, chief executive of


the British Air


Transport Associa- tion. “I think it is the wrong way to encourage people to use public transport. It is merely lining the pockets of airports


at the


expense of hard- pressed passengers.” Taxi and private hire firms have also been annoyed by the charges. “The airports are doing this for only one thing,” said Bryan Roland, Gener- al Secretary of the


National Private Hire Association.


about money, money and more money. People are being ripped off.” Nick Trend, the Tele- graph’s consumer travel editor, accused airports of exploiting a captive market. “Now it is becoming harder and harder to find


somewhere


which doesn’t fleece you simply for a quick pick-up or drop-off near the ter- minal.” Darren Caplan, chief executive of the Air- port Operators’ Asso- ciation, defended the charges. “For many airports around half of their revenue is taken from non-aero- nautical fees, which


enable them to oper- ate and improve their services for the bene- fit of passengers. “Some airports do levy different charges but the biggest single charge for passen- gers is Air Passenger Duty. Passengers have a choice about which airport to travel from but they don’t have a choice about avoiding the UK’s eye-wateringly high levels of APD.” Mmmm… No doubt PHTM readers will have something to say about the airport charges where you are; the NPHA gets calls and emails about this problem virtually every week. You know where to get in touch… - Ed.


PHTM AUGUST 2013


39mm


20mm


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