Aberdeen City Council’s licensing committee has agreed to allow taxi drivers to pass the £1 airport drop-off charge onto passengers.
The new charges were introduced by bosses of privately owned Aberdeen Airport in January of this year after concerns over the over-capacitated forecourt.
Chief executive of Aberdeen Airport, Carol Benzie, said that the drop-off fee was a necessary introduction before “someone got hurt” and that 10% of the income received from the fee would be plumbed back into projects that will “benefit the wider community”.
Customers to Take the Hit
Committee members agreed that the surcharge should be imposed from the 17th of June to allow time for the change to be to be advertised and for anybody to lodge an appeal. To date, no appeals have been received.
Although Aberdeen taxi drivers are delighted with the news they do regret that their customers have had to take the hit.
Stevie Robertson, representative for Unite Union, said: “It seems an unfair charge to be passed onto the customers, we don’t want to do that but it’s a cost that’s being imposed and we have very little control over it.”
Council Support
Committee convener, Scott Carle, said that he and his colleagues were very focused on “supporting the trade”.
“The trade made their case and we were happy to listen.”
He commented: “The trade made their case and we were happy to listen. If you can imagine a driver might have a number of fares going to the airport, over the weeks it adds up to quite a lot of money.”
Mr Carle also said that passengers should be made aware that they could avoid paying the surcharge by being dropped off at the long-stay car park where a free shuttle bus is provided to transport them to the main terminal.