Times reader not impressed with parking :: 27/01/2008 :: Airport Parking News

Birmingham parking enrages reader

In a recently published reader’s rant in the Times newspaper, a man voiced his frustration with the passenger drop-off system at Birmingham airport that has resulted from an attempt to increase security at the entrance of the terminal building. The reader says that he understands why cars have been made to park a further 30 yards from the entrance after the terrorist scare in Glasgow last summer, but he feels that the airport parking facility is the only one seeing profit from this.

He claims that the £1 fee for the first 20 minutes isn’t enough with the amount of walking that has to be done, and before you know it, you’re over your 20 minutes and being charged £3.

A Birmingham Airport spokesman responded in the paper by saying this: 'We initially allowed drivers to park in the short-stay car park at no cost for 10 minutes; however, with more than 1m vehicles using the set down roads every year, and poor behaviour by some motorists, this caused gridlock at peak times. As a result, we adopted the current approach to encourage greater use of our other car parks.

The short-stay car park is now a rapid-drop-off area with prices designed to encourage passengers to keep the traffic free-flowing. Our motivation has been to ensure the safety of our visitors and to improve traffic flows, not to make money. Indeed, the revenue made from the rapid-drop-off area is less than when it was the short-stay car park.'