Maybe you didn't, but the 'trick' many people use is to drive up to the terminal and then use the mobile to phone in to the mate in the terminal..... The airport police look out for single occupant cars and divert them. Sort of logical, don't you think? There would never be enough room in the drop off for that sort of behaviour.
Admittedly stopping the free time is stupid, but some bean counters cannot be stopped from their nonsense.
Indicates that at some times the airport is busy
Yes I had called my relation who headed up to the airport then. She was stuck in the traffic as each person obviously wound down the window to ask the jobsworth what the problem was. Meanwhile the road outside the terminal was virtually empty !!! It obviously didn't occur to the jobsworth at the entrance to the pickup/dropoff area to divert traffic when the area was FULL.
They diverted ALL cars, not just single occupant cars.
There weren't any airport police outside the terminal itself to advise people (including elderly people) what they were up to. It's bad enough that the DAA's incompetence is visited on us, without self-inflicted wounds. Is it because there are so many non nationals going through for flights, at this time, I wonder ?