Cheaper to park plane than a car at airport

WITH the cost of a family holiday rising, it’s little wonder passengers are enraged to be charged when being dropped off at the airport.

But now it has emerged that for travellers using Edinburgh Airport, it costs more to park a car in its drop-off zone than an airliner next to the terminal.

Operators of Scotland’s busiest airport have been accused of ‘fleecing’ motorists after figures showed it charges airlines £4.95 to park an Airbus A320 on the apron for 15 minutes, while spending a similar time dropping friends or relations off will set drivers back £5.

Motoring groups say customers are being ripped off.

However, the operators have dismissed the parking figures as ‘misleading’.

The charge levels were obtained by campaigning website Scotland’s Worst Drivers (SWD).

It established that an A320 – widely used by British Airways and EasyJet for flights to London airports – is billed £3.23 per 15 minutes at its ‘empty’ weight of 43 tons.

But even when the jet is stationary and full of passengers, fuel and luggage, approaching a weight of 66 tons, it will still only be charged £4.95 for parking for each quarter-hour.

By contrast, Edinburgh’s drop-off fees start at £1 for up to five minutes, £3 for up to ten minutes and £5 for between ten and 20 minutes.

Neil Greig, director of policy and research at IAM RoadSmart Scotland, said: ‘Our views have always been that airports live by people arriving by car.

‘The charges are unfair because even with the trams there’s no other real alternative. You’ve no choice but to pay these exorbitant fees.

‘There’s just not the public transport for families to travel to the airport with their luggage, so they’ve got a captive market and they’re fleecing people.’

A spokesman for SWD said: ‘Edinburgh Airport might claim that most people only spend a few minutes in the drop off area, however, when the queues are big, you can spend over ten minutes in there which puts the cost up.

‘[Paying] £5 for ten or 15 minutes is close on daylight robbery and not even London Heathrow Airport charge a drop-off fee for passengers, and they deal with six times more passengers and nearly four times as many aircraft movements.’

However, an Edinburgh Airport spokesman said yesterday: ‘This is not a like-for-like comparison and the suggestion is extremely misleading. The drop-off area is not a car park and charges promote the flow of vehicles in a space-restricted area, with 98 per cent passing through in under five minutes and 99.5 per cent in under ten minutes.

‘Aircraft do not simply drop off passengers – they are often based at the airport and perform several rotations every day, typically serving more than 300 people per rotation. Aircraft are also charged to land and for every passenger facilitated.’

Glasgow Airport charges £2 for up to ten minutes in its drop-off zone while London Luton charges £3 for drop-off nearest to the terminal, plus £1 a minute after ten minutes.

‘They’re fleecing people’