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Bournemouth Airport defiant on parking and drop-off charges
Bournemouth Airport is standing by its decision to charge people to pick up and drop passengers off.
The new measure, which will be introduced from Thursday, will remove the free 10-minute period currently in place at the airport, charging vehicles, including taxis £2.50 for a stay of up to 30 minutes.
The new move has attracted some criticism from passengers unhappy at the extra cost they will incur.
Ken Barnett, 82, of Hurn, commutes between Bournemouth and the Canary Islands around seven or eight times a year.
He said: “They say you can’t stop on the road because of terrorism. But you can at Heathrow.
“I am a frequent user of the airport and sometimes friends take me there and I take them and drop them off.
“You can go to other airports and drop people off. It’s a complete nonsense.”
Paul Knight, operations director at Bournemouth Airport said: “It’s no secret that, like many other regional airports, we have seen passenger numbers decline during the recession. Despite this over £45million has been invested in redeveloping the airport.
“We looked at what similar sized airports are doing and considered a number of different options, including a per passenger airport charge, but we settled on removing the 10-minute free period as it would only affect a minority of our passengers. We have received some complaints about this since it was announced.
“But we hope that our passengers will understand that it will allow us to keep investing in the airport which will, ultimately, lead to more airlines flying to a wider range of destinations, from one of the most modern terminals in the UK.”