Airport drop-off fees to hit drivers of larger vehicles

New plans to introduce controversial charges to drop people off at a Yorkshire airport will cost drivers of larger vehicles as much as three times more, it has been revealed.

Minibus, coach and drivers of any other vehicle with eight or more seats have to pay a £6 charge to drop off or collect travellers from Leeds Bradford International Airport.

The fee doubles to £15 for stays of up to 60 minutes, and again to £30 for two hours.

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Each subsequent hour after this will cost £15. Under the current regulations all vehicles are charged £2 to drop off or collect.

The move follows on from the introduced of the so-called “kiss and fly” tax, which caused outrage when it was first introduced at Leeds Bradford Airport in spring 2011.

Now larger vehicles are facing having to pay three times more to drop off passengers at the airport.

Chris Hall, office manager for Armley, Leeds-based private hire firm Amber Cars, said it will hurt the bottom-lines of taxi drivers in the city, given they are already wrestling with high fuel costs.

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He said: “Fares from airports can be good payers but many customers are going to be very unhappy about these charges.

“It will be a headache for drivers of bigger vehicles. They’ll have to turn down airport fares for smaller groups as they won’t be able to pass that charge on to them.”

Eric Jackson, who along with wife Sue runs EJ Private Hire in Eggborough, near Selby, said 2012 had been a “bumper year” for fares to Leeds Bradford Airport.

They run two vehicles – a seven-seater Citroen C8 and a nine-seater VW Transporter.

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Most of their fares are for one or two passengers, who he believes will not want to absorb the extra cost, meaning they will have to at times turn down customers.

Mr Jackson told the Yorkshire Post it would make more sense to tax passenger numbers, not vehicle sizes.

Asked why he thought the new charges had been introduced, he said: “They’re getting a good income. I could understand it a little more if it was £3, but not £6.”

Asked why these charges had been introduced at all, a spokeswoman for the airport said it was about safety.

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She said: “Only larger minibus vehicles of over eight seats are subject to the higher charge and they now have a dedicated lane with the space they need to operate safely.”

But critics argue the tariff puts lives at risk as many are opting to be dropped off on the roadside to avoid the charges.

The state of traffic around Leeds Bradford airport has been a contentious one for some time.

A report in 2007 showed that some businessmen and women from the region were electing to fly from Manchester Airport rather than their local one, such was the state of the traffic.

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