"London" Luton Airport

Thursday 30th June 06:43
 
 This morning I noticed just how ridiculous "London" Luton Airport has become. Now think back a few years to when it all seemed a lot easier. I was living in Germany and averaging around 30 flights a year, jetting back to my "fatherland" to visit family and friends and increasing my carbon footprint. This was long before "London" Luton airport introduced their new interesting drop off parking policy. Originally there used to be a large area next to the terminal building you could simply drive in, park where you like and deposit your partner, friend or colleague off to an exotic destination of their choice (or not so exotic as the case generally is when flying from Luton). Pretty much the same system as every other airport in the world. As of last year the brain boxes behind "London" Luton airport decided to charge people for this privilege. One whole English pound buys you the right to drop your friend or family member off next to the terminal building and stay parked for up to ten minutes. You may now come to the conclusion that it's not a lot of money, and i would happily nod in agreement. I actually think what they have done is a genius business model and maybe other airports should take note. Making people pay for what they need to do is somehow a new stealth tax. It's like being at a train station in London and being charged 50 pence to go to the toilet (which is another form of taxation, crap tax i like to call it). Whatever next? People charged tax on air...? "Yes from today we will ask every citizen of the United Kingdom to pay one pound every day for economical oxygen growth tax", I can already envision a certain Mr C saying.
 
Jokes aside, the main problem in this ingenious money making plan is they did not plan for the amount of congestion it would make during the flying rush hours. I am currently sat on my low cost flight to Glasgow deep in thought (on business and certainly not leisure), having been dropped a few hundred yards from the terminal building due to non moving traffic. Surely they should have thought if people are going to spend one pound, especially when we are "coming out of a recession", people will make the most of it. Therefore people are more than prepared to use nine and three quarters of their ten allocated minutes regardless of leaving hundreds of cars waiting their turn behind them. All I'm saying to "London" Luton airport is, if your going to do something so drastic please think of the consequences and act accordingly. Instead they have set up a van with signs informing the public if you do not drop your people off in the designated one pound payment drop off area, you get fined eighty pounds. What they should have done is change the road system to make it quicker and easier to drop people off, not threaten people with pay one pound or pay eighty pounds into our coffers. Have they never flown low cost early in the morning? I for one can tell you it's not pretty and the last thing you want is unneeded trouble prior to hitting the airport, because that's when it normally begins.