Airport charges
 

I see LHR terminal 4 has caused up set by increasing their car park charges by 66%

Outrage as Heathrow increases short-stay car park charges by as much as 66 per cent - Telegraph

It never fails to amaze me why airports deliberately go out of their way to make the check in/arrival process a most unpleasant experience by instigating these ridicilous charges to feather 'their own nests' It's bad enough to pay for a trolly at BHX but what's next on the cards? A £5 security fee? £5 boarding charge?

Yes, probably..all of those. The parking charges could have gone up by 200% and people would still park in them. Have a look in there sometime - Porsche, Range Rover, Bentley, Jaguar and various Italian exotica all scrambling for space. Supply for demand.... corporate and high net worth private individual demand that is.

Think that's expensive? About five years ago it cost us £95 to land a light twin engined helicopter at LHR.

It now costs £4500.

We don't even use the runway and have to give way to everything else. Sometimes we get held off, meaning we now also require a refuel.

The £1500 "extra security charge" brought in for the 2012 Olympics (so we were told) seems to have somehow been left in place.

We must not forget how fortunate we are in the UK to have privatised the key infrastructure of the country. :hmm:

We must not forget how well the 'light touch regulation' of a few things that seemed important 25 years ago, has ensured market forces have distorted prices with unintended consequences. :ouch:

of course, that might have been the intention in the first place ... :suspect:

You will be paying a charge for security next year when the CAA take over regulation from the DfT. You'll likely not notice it as it'll be a tiny part of your ticket price but yes, you'll certainly be paying.

The government pay the cost of regulation which of course is funded by taxes, but it's spread over every taxpayer. From next year each passenger will pay directly for each UK departure. No need for the sarcasm.

As usual, however, taxes will not be reduced to account for it :hmm:

Well that's true, you won't get it back but then it's not a terribly big ticket item. The cost of government regulation of aviation security is around the 7 to 8 million pound per year mark which spread over say, just under 40 million taxpayers is about 19 pence or 26 US cents in the year roughly, give or take. I'm not convinced anyone would notice or value that sum being given back to them.

I gather a levy of about 40 or 50 pence (roughly 65 cents) will be put on each customer but the charging mechanism isn't set yet.

Norwich airport has a local "airport development" tax (can't recall whether it's £5 or £10) which each passenger must pay before being able to access the departure lounge.
It's always p****d me off and I've often wondered what they could legally do if you refused to pay it.

Latterly, I realised that paying £10 to get out of Norwich seemed cheap at the price :E

Newquay Airport, Cornwall, UK currently charges £5 for this; it's about to rise to £10. You buy an Airport Development Fee ticket from a machine in the concourse. As far as I am aware, you are unable to board a flight without the ticket. The airport regulations state that the airport maintains the right to refuse entry to anyone not paying the fee. The fee is levied by Cornwall County council.

Govt (local and national) intend that we should pay individually for everything that was previously included out of taxes (local and national).

Naturally, the taxes we pay (local and national) do not go down, although we are told that they do not go up as much as they otherwise would have done. Which I find most encouraging. :hmm:

Commercial companies (local and national) ensure that what was previosuly included, is now separated. They also ensure that where it is easier and cheaper for them to provide a service (booking a ticket of any kind, film, plane or concert) should be surcharged. Whereas, when they provide the service at greater cost to themselves (a human in a booth outside the cinema or concert hall) they you do NOT pay the extra charge.

The fact they they only surcharge where the greatest majority of people purchase is non of our business. :sad: