Gatwick Airport to introduce £5 charge to drop off passengers from 2021

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• Baji Nahid says:

  14 Oct14 October 02:27

  Lol, this is just the start of the milking of passengers by airports.

• Goldmember says:

  14 Oct14 October 02:38

  That’ll be drop offs and pickups at the Hilton South Terminal from now on then lol

• Ian says:

  14 Oct14 October 02:57

  In todays exco we want your ideas how to: “encourage people not to fly!”

  Charge for drop off
  Charge exit fee to all passengers for airport development
  Make people walk miles around duty free shops
  Remove air bridges
  Remove all check in desk

• Stu R says:

  14 Oct14 October 03:51

  Wow, now there’s an incentive to book my next holiday from Gatwick!

  This really starts to feel like the race to the bottom, effectively charging passengers an airport entry and exit fee, when they already pay to use the airport as part of their taxes and fees (which in most cases cost more than the ticket these days!).

  And I suspect the Hilton will get wise to drop-offs and pick-ups and act to stop it in a very short space of time: a single from Horley is £2 by train, or Three Bridges £2.50 … or better still, another reason not to fly from Gatwick.

  • ChrisC says:

    14 Oct14 October 04:21

    You’d probably pay more that a fiver in petrol going to another airport.

    And there is an easy way to avoid it and that’s to use the long term car park.

    It won’t bother me because I use the train.

  • Goldmember says:

    14 Oct14 October 06:21

    I imagine Hilton will try to curb abuse but difficult to enforce. Not only would it enrage their guests there’s also pedestrian footpaths to the railway station – lots of commuters in the area start their journey at Gatwick and get picked up/dropped off by car here. Can’t imagine Southern will be too pleased if their commuters can’t be dropped off/picked up without incurring a massive fee. Also the current Eastway which is the access road to the front of the Hilton is also the access/exit road to a massive Euro Carpark and also takes you back to Mcdonalds, BP and the roundabout without actually having to enter the South Terminal complex….. so unless massive redevelopment is underway to address these too then I don’t see it being as fortress like as is the case at Luton or Stansted.

    • The real John says:

      14 Oct14 October 07:01

      The Hilton doesn’t care about its guests though.

  • Paul says:

    14 Oct14 October 07:03

    This really starts to feel like the race to the bottom, effectively charging passengers an airport entry and exit fee, when they already pay to use the airport as part of their taxes

    Welcome to rip off Britain

    • maccymac says:

      14 Oct14 October 09:15

      +1

• Jamie says:

  14 Oct14 October 03:59

  Where do the imbeciles that run these companies come from? And how do they get to be where they are? It is certainly not from the likes of Eton. Boris being the obvious outlier.

• Richard M says:

  14 Oct14 October 04:30

  So what will happen is there will be lots of drop offs along the road in unsafe places both for cars and pedestrians.

  • Blenz101 says:

    14 Oct14 October 05:04

    It will become the same as all the other airports mentioned in the article.

    Uber adds the “airport surcharge” on at LBA to cover the cost of the drop off fee, assuming this is true elsewhere at least those arriving by taxi will have no incentive to be dropped off before the point of being charged, especially under the fixed price model.

  • Jonathan says:

    14 Oct14 October 06:26

    If it’s anything like Liverpool airport then all the approaching roads will be double yellow with no stopping signs & aggressively enforced by CCTV.

    • Paul says:

      14 Oct14 October 14:14

      Even worse they are double reds and that van with the camera permanently parked on the roundabout must rake in thousands a year for Peel Holdings as I don’t know anyone who has successfully appealed – including for stopping to change a puncture!

• ChrisC says:

  14 Oct14 October 05:39

  Sorry missed typed.

  It’s not 15% of car trips that are kiss and fly but 15% of airport journeys are by car.

  • Jonathan says:

    14 Oct14 October 06:30

    I presume this doesn’t include taxis as 15% is pretty low. Certainly much lower than school drop offs or visits to shops/gyms etc which probably lend themselves more to alternative methods.

• Chrisasaurus says:

  14 Oct14 October 06:17

  Hmmm… how many of those drop offs are not practical another way? elderly relatives or parents with kids or simply people who live not near a station that goes to Gatwick?

  • Stu N says:

    14 Oct14 October 09:20

    It’s a fee for convenience, essentially. Edinburgh has had it for years, I (pre-Covid, anyway) flew regularly and rarely paid it. Combination of using free drop-offs and walking more than the length of myself or using public transport where possible.

    Your examples are typical of the red herrings trotted out by the motoring lobby. People dropping off elderly relatives and young families are in all likelihood parking up at the moment anyway so won’t be affected – in fact, if it has a deterrent effect they may actually benefit via reduced congestion and faster, more reliable journey times.

    People who don’t live near a station can use the free drop off slightly further from the terminal, or maybe they will think again about how they get to the airport.

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