What’s your biggest airport bugbear?

Norwich

I just checked and was amazed to find that that would appear to be thet Airport Development Fee and is £10, not £3!

http://www.norwichairport.co.uk/faq.asp ans scroll down a bit.

That really is outrageous. You already pay to use the airport in landing charges as part of your ticket price. They say that Newquay Cornwall Airport, Blackpool International Airport and Durham Tees Valley Airport run this scam too.

http://www.norwichairport.co.uk/documents/norwichairportfeeschargesapril14.pdf

Cannot see any mention of a £3 fee which seems bizarre. I see that there is an executive lounge which has an unmentioned charge – could that be it? Though from what you write unlikely.

http://www.eclipsedutyfree.co.uk/html_pages/lounge.htm

No – no mention in any of the bumph anywhere. It was a couple of years ago and i’ve retired now thankfully after 40 years of extensive traveling around the world – land sea and air. I understand the charges have gone up at some airports considerably. Vancouver also comes to mind – confronted with a $20 fee to get into the departure area. That’s stopped now tho. Staycations for me now.

On the home page of the Norwich Airport website [norwichairport.co.uk] there is a prominent box labelled Airport Development Fee [ADF] which links through to a page about this levy which explains how it works, says what it’s used for, and seeks to justify it. It pre-empts, but does not answer, Nick Davies’ point above with the following devious words –

“Norwich International has decided to collect the ADF in an open and transparent manner, and all airlines operating from the airport are aware of its existence as a charge payable locally in addition to the flight ticket costs and associated taxes / charges”.

Yes, ‘devious’ is not an unfair term, although I can think of other less printable adjectives to describe Norwich’s ‘Airport Development Fee’.

At least Ryanair, in attempting to charge passengers extra at every opportunity, give something tangible in return (even if it’s only a trip to the loo or whatever) on the day in question, whereas Norwich’s ADF is nothing less than shameless daylight robbery : compulsory extraction of money today for nothing other than the possibility of improved facilities should the victims choose to return at some time in the future.

We chose not to; Luton or Stansted are at least as attractive as departure points, do not try to charge us a sizeable extra sum every time we use them for a family trip and are worth the extra miles we have to drive to get there.

I agree about fast track security. When flying from Madrid recently, I looked for the fast track security lane (as I would be entitled to use it), but I couldn’t find it. I then discovered that Madrid operates one security channel for all passengers with no queue. This is how it should be.

Jeremy, this has been standard practice at BA for quite some time and I fly with them short-haul every week. There is not enough room in the overheads to accomodate all the bags being brought onboard these days and those that won’t fit go in the hold. Ryanair’s 737-800 max number of bags overhead is, I think, 90 but BA’s is much less on their smaller A319’s. It follows that, on busy flights, there will always be some bags that have nowehere else to go other than in the hold. I have yet to see any passenger refuse to have their bags put in the hold if asked. It’s free. NO AIRLINE will guarantee that luggage will not be damaged so, in fairness, that was an unreasonable request.

Personally I was very glad when airlines started insisting on only one piece of hand luggage. As one who only ever did have one, and found it often impossible extremely difficult to find space in the locker over my own seat for it, I got most cross seeing people selfishly bringing on three or even four piece just to save a few minutes in baggage reclaim.

So why did Ryanair increase the number of cabin bags to two then when it doesn’t have space? What’s needed is a strict enforcement of the size limit (with no weight limit) and only one item.

The trouble is you get into silly arguments as to whether a laptop bag counts as a bag, or does a woman’s handbag and when is it too big to be a handbag and becomes a piece of luggage? So you stipulate one piece of hand luggage plus a laptop bag, but what if it hasn’t got a laptop in it? People will find all manner of ways of bending the rules.

NFH, I am inclined to agree with you (I only ever have a carry-on) but that’s exactly what Ryanair were doing up til February this year and their “strict enforcement” rules were regularly berated publicly by passengers who felt the rules didn’t apply to them (supported by the likes of the Daily Mail). So, you can’t win can you 🙂 ?
At BA Gate desks they tie a yellow ribbon around hand baggage that they decide must go under the seat. If you chance it and put it in the overhead it will be spotted and removed!!

Non-enforcement of the existing hand baggage restrictions is the real bugbear as it makes life difficult and potentially hazardous if the overhead lockers are filled up with big pieces of luggage. “Hand Baggage”, by definition, is an article that can be carried around by the hand reasonably easily for a lengthy period. Anything that requires wheels and a pull-handle is not hand baggage. I think the trend towards taking luggage on the plane was influenced by unreasonable charges for extra weight in hold luggage [the permitted weights have gradually reduced – allegedly as a response to “manual handling regulations” but irrelvant because there is very little manual handling involved]. Since it seems that the extra weight is going on the plane anyway – but in a more unsafe and troublesome way – it would make sense for the airlines to increase the weight limits for the hold luggage . . . or would that reduce the capacity for lucrative commercial freight which so often delays departure? In my experience baggage-handling is now so fast and efficient at most major airports that it often beats the passengers to the carousel.

I agree baggage handling can be quite quick in delivering bags to the terminal – but that’s assuming the bag was actually on the correct flight. I DO usually have a checked in bag – but I also have a certain amount of essential and/or valuable/breakable stuff that I would never put into the hold… That said, my baggage, hand or hold, is always well within size and weight limits.. What on earth do people put in those monster cases??

Germany has always operated the strictest exit immigration controls in the Schengen area, and France some of the weakest. I don’t know why Germany bothers doing this, given that anyone dodgy will simply enter or exit the Schengen area via France.

This would be my number 1 beef. There are always unmanned checkindesks/passport control points/security channels despite long queues at those that are open. Tesco solved this with their policy of opening more lanes until the queues go down. Airports should do the same. Steve

I agree about France. Their ‘security’ at CDG is farcical, and during a bomb scare some years ago one French National was arrested for making a really loud song and dance about the fact that all the evacuated people in the outer ring of the airport were allowed back in without any re-examination in security.

Everybody should try (not!) Luton Airport.
Not only do they charge £3 for a 15 minute pick up, they then charge you £80 if you stay over that! You have to leave the pick up part, drive about 2 miles to srat again. No wonder with flight delays and security matters, loads of drivers block all entrance routes to await the call/text from their potential passengers.

Obviously all trained by British Rail!