Dublin Airport drop-off areas have become pick-up areas


Especially considering they used to enforce it, and now don't.

It's also very common worldwide to enforce limited loitering at airports.
 
Exactly re other airports, for security and traffic management perspectives.

It could be a good ministerial question for a Dáil Éireann sitting.
 
At the weekend I was driving by T1 departures and witnessed a miracle: an airport police officer had appeared and produced an ominous looking book. He started taking the details of a very nervous looking fellow who was idling in the drop-off zone. Within 30 seconds 3 other waiting drivers had vacated their spots. A sight to behold.

Maybe DAA read AAM?
 
Another example of how AAM makes the world a better place. Three cheers for everyone!
 
The same mass irrationality affects the UK: Parked in lay-bys - the drivers determined to avoid airport drop-off fees


Imagine being featured on the BBC complaining about getting fined for waiting to pick people up in a drop-off zone. She is literally the reason that these penalties exist!

I cannot fathom how often people are chauffeuring friends/family to and from the airport that a £6 charge would make them carry on like this.
 
The issue is they are allowing pickups but not providing enough space for them. It's probably time to stop all pickups and make everyone park. Because there's no where left to loiter anywhere near the airport.

Parking also just takes longer then just driving by.
 
The pick up and drop off area in cork airport is free for the first 10 minutes. As others said it is done via number plate recognition and works very well. Using a flight scanner app I would track the incoming flight and knowing if my family member had luggage in the hold or not then allow them a certain time to disembark, passport check , pick up luggage, customs & exit. As others said, wait somewhere within 10 minutes of the airport and only start making your way to the collection zone when they are through customs for example. It is better for the passenger to wait outside for a few minutes than for the driver to clutter up the zone.

I live close by so I wait at home but if I was picking up at Dublin airport estimating all of that accurately and knowing where the collection zone is, is rather too complex, so I use the short term car park. I would probably arrive early as the journey is a few hours and take a break while waiting before the return journey.

In Cork there is a separate zone for taxis, and it is all very effective. I saw the article in the BBC also and it was the lack of a 10 minute free drop or collect which is what I would object to. Genuine drop off or collect should take no more than 1 or 2 minutes so if you are taking longer than 10 minutes use the short term car park. Also for larger airports there are larger passenger numbers, multiple flights arriving together so it is probably too difficult to easily coordinate the 10 min zone of the driver arriving to coordinate with the passengers being ready so I can see why drop off only would be allowed. But charging taxis the same parking fee in the UK airport seems to go against the norms of public transport.
 
Where I live (in Perth, WA) it's common to see people loitering in cars outside the airport, waiting for a text from an arriving passenger to say that they've got their bags and are heading to the pickup/dropoff zone.

All this does, though, is relocate the congestion from the pickup/dropoff zone to the areas where people tend to loiter in their cars waiting for the text, to the intense annoyance of residents, businesses, etc, in those areas.
 
All this does, though, is relocate the congestion from the pickup/dropoff zone to the areas where people tend to loiter in their cars waiting for the text, to the intense annoyance of residents, businesses,
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I experience the same thing in an airport I often use in France. While there is a very accessible cheap 15mn car park, people park all around the airport to avoid any charge for pick up. It's disruptive and dangerous. Last time I used it, cars parked blocked the easy access to a petrol station and the rental return.
 
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I'm my opinion they've been increasing flights and air traffic at the airport without building any transport links or parking infrastructure. Clinging on to a bus for dear life as a bus driver races though sprawling fields of cars at midnight is a joke.

It needed a train link. It needed massive multistory car parking nearby.

It's also centralizing everything on Dublin which means everyone has to drive to Dublin.
 
They are also building a honking big hotel directly in front of the terminal buildings so there never be an option to improve access.
 
"Mobile phone lot" is the best solution I have seen. A small free car park close to the pickup area where people can wait for a pickup call from their passengers. When the call is received they zip around and there is no waiting at pickup. No barriers, cameras etc slowing things down further. No need for highly trained airport police spending time on low value parking duties.
 
How does one then ensure it's only used for this purpose and not free long term car park?
 
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ificandream said:
Mobile phone lot" is the best solution I have seen. A small free car park
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There is nowhere left for this. It's in effect the departures drop off. I mean there use to be an arrivals pickup and they blocked it. Blocked all side roads no loitering anywhere. You'd have to park a good bit away these days.

We usually wait until someone's landed and we get a phone call before leaving the house. Last time we parked as we had to meet the flight.

There's a decent AppleGreen on the old airport road and has EV chargers.
 
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