01.06.09
Parking charges for picking up friends and family from Stansted Airport have been branded a ‘rip-off’, the Cambridge News reports. Peter Coles, a regular traveller from the airport, told the newspaper he is ‘amazed’ that it is allowed to charge as much as it does for people to drop off or pick up passengers.
Mr Coles said: 'Stansted is being allowed to rip off the public when they collect anyone arriving back to the airport. There is only one area that you can be collected by car or taxi minibus. This used to be free for the first 15 minutes, then went to £1, and this year it went to a charge of £2 - just for the privilege of being collected.'
'This is a complete rip-off, unreasonable and unjust. Surely to stop people staying their too long, make the first 15 minutes free then charge a rate of, say, £5 for every 15 minutes thereafter.’
A spokesman for Stansted told the newspaper part of the issue was security, and that in comparison to hospitals and city centres the airport's car parks offer good value for money.
The spokesman told the newspaper: ‘Security is the main reason we discourage vehicles from picking up passengers from the front of the terminal. But the other reason is to reduce 'kiss and fly' trips.'
‘A proportion of passengers are dropped off by friends or relatives at the airport by private car. These are called 'kiss and fly' trips, and often create double the amount of car trips compared with park and fly, causing increased congestion, and so are a significant contributor to CO2 emissions.'
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