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AIRPORT DROP-OFF AND PICK-UP CHARGES: STAYCATION OR VACATION, WHAT ARE THE HIDDEN CHARGES?


Traditionally throughout the UK and the world – in the days of the “old normal” before the Covid-19 pandemic – August has always been the busiest month for holidays, and for airlines and airports catering for holidaymakers flying off to warmer climes and exotic places. However this August is seeing a different scenario: airports are con- siderably quieter, numbers of travellers on each aeroplane are being limited and spread out, travellers coming in from some countries have to be quarantined, but not others. So in the midst of this “new normal” – or at least a partial relaxation of the dreaded national lockdown – some folks are fortunate enough to be able to get away this summer. But what comes along and takes the edge off such pleasures? Ker-ching! Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport has suddenly increased the charge for vehicles using their Express Drop-off area outside the terminal to £4.00 for up to ten minutes. And if there is any delay in the passenger’s arrival procedure this shoots up to £10.00 for up to 20 minutes. Longer delay than that? £25.00 for up to an hour. Well, this created quite a stir when the info went out on PHTM Face- book. And of course drivers were reflecting on the ‘rip-off’ charges from other airports as well. Here is a selection of comments:


George Bathgate: Shocking. You would expect them to welcome the passengers back. For the last few weeks Edinburgh airport has pleading poverty. They will be happy now that they can operate. The problem in Edin-


burgh the Hackney’s ph and Uber will not stick together. On the odd time I go to the airport I find it easier to use the A100 airport bus.


John Voss: Luton airport has had this price structure for a long while now, I always find it a slightly difficult conversation to have with the customer.


Ian Dickinson: Wow! Makes Heathrow sound reasonable…but I doubt that will stay the same for long!


Dominic Brant: For the price of an hour in the car park you can fly to Spain.


Benchaa Abdallah: Bloody hell they keep putting prices up every year was free then £1 then £2 then £3 now £4 totally rip off.


Brian Pearson: Motorists are just cash cows to all these organisa- tions. We are the biggest and easiest target and it will just continue to get worse.


Asif Khan: Don’t panic. The charges pass it to passengers. Mandeep Lalli: Nearly as bad as Luton airport. £4 for first 10 mins


then £1 a minute thereafter.


Peter Lewis: Disgusting, airports are thieves with a licence, there should be no charge to deliver their paying customers.


OK, so based on these reactions PHTM decided to conduct one of our famous surveys – this time looking into the current pickup and drop-off charges at all the major UK airports. This reflects the latest details direct from the airport websites, and also direct contact. Having looked at these various charges, we started to think in terms of possible delays within the airport which might cause the passen- ger(s) to be late coming out of the terminal to their taxi/PHV. This is where several questions have cropped up, to which there will not yet be answers as the whole air travel procedure has just started up again in earnest.


46


As all readers will know, most private hire firms and their drivers offer a “Meet and Greet” service for their passengers, especially regulars, which usually entails the company contacting the airport with the passenger’s flight details to confirm the correct arrival time so that the driver isn’t sitting outside having to pay extra pick-up charges. But what about now, when various other procedures might cause delays? The most notable of these could well be temperature surveillance testing, which is being proposed, trialled or introduced at a large number of the UK’s major airports. You’ll see from our table that this primarily is being trialled with outgoing air travellers; both thermal camera imaging and digital non-contact thermometer checking are being considered. The current scientific evidence does not support temperature screening as an effective method to screen passengers for coron- avirus. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) advice is that there should be no requirement for temperature screening before passengers fly to, enter, depart from, or fly within the UK. That was as of 11 June 2020; you know how quickly things change around here in the “new normal”, so watch this space… However, these procedures could well be expanded to include incoming passengers as well, especially those from countries that have been particularly hard-hit with Covid. If that is the case, such temperature surveillance testing would add some time – one doesn’t know how long – to the process of coming through Cus- toms on arrival. And of course if the passenger is to be picked up by taxi/PHV, neither that passenger nor their driver will know how long such delay may take. Ker-ching. Heathrow is set to become the first UK airport to offer medical Covid-19 testing for incoming passengers. Under this new ‘Test-on- Arrival’ system, passengers can take the pilot testing scheme of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). It will be available for passen- gers coming in from the USA, China, Brazil, and Portugal. So, if you happen to get a negative result in this test, you are free to go with- out any quarantine period. This testing is awaiting a positive response from the government, after which it could start at the airport. It has been developed by the ground and cargo handling service, Swissport International, along with the Collinson Group. The government in the UK put out a list of 59 countries with low rates of COVID-19. People from these nations would not have to get into quarantine when coming into the country. The list includes countries such as Australia, France, Cyprus, New Zealand, Jamaica, among others. The same is not true for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, as these countries are yet to decide on travel restric- tions. Spain has just gone back to quarantine conditions. Passengers must remember that if you are flying to Heathrow, you will have to book a test ahead of your flight. You are even required to set up an account. If you are willing to spend 14 days in quaran- tine, you do not have to book a test. The test will be done at the airport upon arrival and will go to a biotech lab. You will then be asked to go to the address that you provided to the authorities, and by evening the results will be out. If it is positive, then you will have to continue living in that address for 14 days. In case it is negative, you can leave straight away. The procedure has been devised to “restore public confidence in aviation and travel and be a welcome boost to the wider economy”. However, it does mean an additional delay for passengers leaving the airport for their onward travel – whose driver is sitting outside. Fortunately at the moment Heathrow doesn’t make such a charge, but as some of our Facebook posters commented, it’s not far off… Ker-ching. Final word goes out to John Lennon Airport: You’d think in these days of post-lockdown austerity, when both the aviation industry


AUGUST 2020


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