Airport parking change is unfair

I LIVE in the Charente and work during the week in the Netherlands. I take a flight from Bordeaux early on a Monday and return on Friday.

Until recently, I have used the long-term car park (P4), leaving my vehicle at about 05.00 on the Monday and returning around 23.00 on the Friday. The normal cost is about €35 per week. There is a shuttle bus from P4 to the terminal, which normally runs from 05.00 to 23.00.

However, since November 1, Bordeaux Airport authority has decided to close P4 between 23.30 (or the last flight in) and 07.30. Information has been placed on the airport website to this effect and signs indicating this are displayed at the car park entrance.

This means that should anyone wish to park outside these hours, they must use P2, the three-day-stay car park. Any one in my position, and there are many, who arrives earlier than 07.30 and spends more than three days out of the country faces excess parking fines for parking longer than three days in the short-term car park.

Anyone wishing to travel on flights, probably with departure times as late as 09.30, will find themselves in a similar position. A two-week stay in P2 will set you back €150, as opposed to €60 for a similar period in P4.

No explanation has been given for this decision, nor any advance notice. I suspect that this is to save money by not running the shuttle bus at early hours in the winter period, when there are fewer charter and scheduled flights.

I have no objection to this. However, there was nothing to stop the airport authorities from simply indicating with a sign at the entrance to the car park that there is no shuttle bus before 07.30 and those parking will need to find their own way to the terminal building.

It is only a 10-minute walk and travellers could easily drop passengers and luggage at the terminal, then park in P4 and return to the terminal.

Failing that, as there is less custom at this time of the year, customers could park in P2 and pay the P4 rate, something the airport normally does during the summer anyway when P4 is full.

I have never heard of a situation before where an airport forces customers to park in a short-term car park for long periods and then charges them over-stay fees for the privilege.

Neil TOLMAN
Sigogne, Charente

An airport spokeswoman said that, during quiet periods in the winter schedule, it would allow passengers who turn up at P4 to park in P2 for the same tariff.