Dundee Airport - new parking charges

The Manager at Dundee Airport has advised me last night that the Dundee Airport Board has now firmly decided to introduce car parking charges at the airport from the end of this month.

The possibility of such charges was raised at the recent Airport Consultative Committee I attended and although I made clear that I have no objection to the principle of introducing some charging to ensure no abuse of the parking facilities by non-airport users (particularly since the 8X bus service started stopping at the airport), I also said that that such charges should not act as a disincentive to users of the airport.

Those flying from Dundee Airport should, in my opinion, have their parking costs reimbursed on production of their boarding pass to ensure that flying from Dundee remains an attractive alternative to travelling to Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Glasgow. My views about ensuring those flying from Dundee do not have the additional cost of car parking charges appeared to be echoed by the MP and the MSP for Dundee West, who also attended the Airport Consultative Committee meeting.

I was therefore a bit concerned to learn that the update from the Airport Manager yesterday appears to give no reassurance that airport passengers will have their parking charges reimbursed and I have written to him seeking clarification and an assurance that such reimbursement arrangements will be made.

Here's the car parking notice from Dundee Airport :

Important Customer information

Car parking charges will be implemented at Dundee Airport from the week commencing 30th November 2009.

Car park 1 will be a short stay car park with a maximum stay of 2 hours.

Car parks 2 & 3 will be long stay car parks. This will be managed on a ticket entry and payment on exit system. The payment machine is adjacent to the terminal building.

The car parking charges will assist the airport in retaining all the services it currently provides.

Car park charging schedule will be;

Short stay, pay and display £1.40 per hour. (Max 2 hours)

Car parks 2 & 3 Long stay by ticket barrier;

30 minutes to 4 hours - £3.00

4 hours to 6 hours - £4.20

6 hours to 8 hours - £5.00

Day rate (more than 8 hours) - £5.50

5 day rate - £20.00

7 day rate - £28.00

Lost ticket charged at £35.00