Media office

Birmingham International Airport is spending £2 million on adapting and improving the traffic flow and parking arrangements for drivers dropping-off and collecting passengers, following last year’s security alert at Glasgow Airport.  The Airport is now urging drivers to use the facilities sensibly to ensure that traffic flows are kept moving, and to use the car parking arrangements in the way they are intended.
 
A major piece of work has already been carried out on the ‘Drop and Go’ facility, which is designed for drivers dropping-off passengers only. This area was previously known by many users as the Short-Stay Surface Car Park, adjacent to the Terminals, but the new name change of ‘Drop and Go’ describes exactly what it is intended to do. This will overall increase the number of ‘drop off’ spaces compared to the previous set down areas available prior to June 2007.   
 
Richard Gill, the Airport’s Head of Market Development - Commercial, explains, “The Airport was forced to shut down the set down roads at the front of its two terminals within minutes of the Glasgow Airport attack in June 2007, causing confusion for passengers and challenges for the Airport Company.
 
”Since then, we’ve had some major challenges and we understand that many drivers have been disappointed by the previous arrangement. However, I believe my team and our commercial partners have made the best out of a very difficult situation and we can now move forward.
 
“The investment we have made, to the ‘Drop and Go’ facility in particular, will help access, safety and speed of dropping people at the Airport and we urge drivers to only use the ‘Drop and Go’ facility for dropping-off passengers only, and to use the Multi-Storey Car Parks for collecting people.”
 
To improve the site for drivers who are collecting passengers from flights into Birmingham, they are advised to park in the Multi-Storey Car Parks. If drivers need to wait for long periods of time before their passengers arrive, they can wait for free, up to an hour, in the surface Long Stay Car Park One. Here, drivers can dwell in a newly installed waiting facility.
 
Work carried out on the ‘Drop and Go’ facility includes installing an additional entrance lane and realigning all three lanes to run parallel to each other so that they are used equally. A third exit lane has also been installed so that there is less likelihood of queues on departure, and all parking bays have been angled at 45 degrees, in a herring bone fashion, allowing motorists to use them more efficiently. There are also special bays for mini busses and disabled drivers.
 
The number of pay machines has also been increased and they are conveniently located throughout the ‘Drop and Go’ area to reduce drivers’ congestion time.
 
Typical prices in ‘Drop and Go’ are £1 for 20 minutes and £3 for every subsequent 15 minutes thereafter. When picking passengers up, the Multi-Storey Car Parks are priced at £1 per 30 minutes and £3.30 per hour; however, after this time the usual short term charges apply. Alternatively, drivers can wait for their passengers to call on arrival in Long-Stay Car Park One for free up to one hour.
 
The Airport offers a mobile phone text service to all members of the public informing them of when a flight has arrived. Register on line at www.bhx.co.uk. Each message costs no more than 50p per text message.