Parking!!
Well I have just come back from a long weekend in Ireland, which was flown EMA-DUB with FR.
Surprisingly, no problems at all with FR. That may be because I regard flying with them in a "this is war" mindset. They aren't having any more money off me. So, follow the rules and it all works swimmingly. Of course, as usual the staff are faultless!!
However, the parking at EMA can only be described as a complete and utter joke. I booked parking via the EMA website, so not sure if it is EMA ran or sub'd out.
On arrival we parked in Long Stay 7 and got a bus to the terminal. However the drop-off / collection point for the bus is the same; so trying to get off the coach with a pram and a pile of people getting on it was a struggle. Then when you arrive you have to walk all the way around to the bus stop (by departures). Why not do what every other airport does and have 2 stops, 1 for deps and 1 for arr's??
That was not the worst though. The frankly third world arrangements for getting out of the car park were totally laughable. As I had prebooked I had no ticket - instead you drive to the barrier, press the button, wait, wait, wait and then read out your booking number which is checked and then you are allowed out. All well and good in practice - but when there are multiple plane loads of people all trying to the same it results in a 20 minute queue to get out of the car park!!
It would have helped if the bloke answering the intercom on the barrier answered it promptly and was alert when he did. Instead it "rang" for about 30 seconds and then he seemed shocked that I wanted to get out.
There are numerous much better solutions to this: pin pad to type booking ref into, barcode on booking ticket and scanner, mutliple exit lanes... you name it.
I won't be buying parking from EMA again thats for sure.... I will try the offsite people next time and if they are no good then I just won't use EMA!!
A real shame as it totally spoiled an otherwise brilliant visit to EMA.
HC.
PS: Whats the current plan/state of the UKIA aircraft?