How Newcastle Airport Is Angering Cabbies And Irritating Passengers

Newcastle Airport is introducing a new parking policy that has cab drivers up in arms and could upset passengers, as well.

Starting on the 26th of April, no one will be allowed to drop off or pick up passengers outside the Newcastle Airport terminal building for free.  Instead there will be a “pick-up and drop off” car park about three minutes’ walk from the terminal that will cost £1.00 for up to 20 minutes.

What a bargain, right?  Tell that to the cab drivers who currently get to park outside the terminal for up to five minutes at no cost.  One cabbie told BBC News that it’s going to cost him around £20 a week now to drop off passengers, a cost that he’s unable by law to add onto his regular tariff.

So let’s see…Newcastle International has so far managed to disgruntle the cab drivers and make it less convenient for passengers to use the airport.  While they’re on a roll, why not charge people admission to enter the terminal building?

But there may be a method to the madness.  A Newcastle Airport spokesperson said:

“We’re one of the very few airports of our size that has been able to not only retain a free period but increase it.

“We’ve listened to customers and offsite taxi drivers and they’ve been telling us that the five minute period that is currently available in front of the terminal building isn’t long enough.  So we’ve put in place a plan that will allow us to extend the period to 15 minutes.

“If we were to extend the existing provision immediately in front of the terminal building to 15 minutes, we wouldn’t be able to accommodate it because of the very limited space.”

It’s not clear at present how or when they will eventually expand the time allowed to 15 minutes, but in the meantime there’s bound to be a lot more (justified) grumbling amongst passengers and cab drivers who have to use the airport.

So, what do you think of the new Newcastle Airport parking fees?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Tags: newcastle airport parking, Newcastle Airport parking fees, Newcastle Airport parking policy, parking at Newcastle Airport

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Airport News, Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.