14 airports: where a pre-booked car waits and picks up

Where can a pre-booked car wait, and where can it pick up?

Eight airports keep a waiting area or a professional lane apart from the public kerb, and most of them also name the place the passenger is met.

Heathrow

The Authorised Vehicle Area, £2 up to two hours, 12 hours at most. No passenger is met there: collect inside Terminal Parking or Park & Ride.

Gatwick

The PHV waiting area, signed from the South Terminal Long Stay car park, £4 up to four hours. Meet the passenger in a Short Stay car park.

Manchester

The Private Hire Holding Area at JetParks 1, £1.50 for up to 90 minutes and £50 past it. Collection is Express Pick Up on one Manchester page, a Short Stay car park on another.

Zurich

The inner, right-hand kerbside lane is private. Permit holders wait free for two hours in P12-100, then take the lane: 50 free minutes at Arrival Services, 30 at Check-in, CHF 1 a minute after.

Nice

Collect at the Terminal 1 parking pro or the Terminal 2 gare routière, 45 minutes at most, and set down in the dépose pro or linéaire pro. The dépose-minute kerbs bar professionals.

Vienna

A limousine garage on level 0 beside Terminal 1, marked on the access plan. No tariff, limit or height is published for it, only value cards, €50 of parking for €45.

Salzburg

Bus parking area P5: sections D to G for the smaller vehicles, A to C for buses over nine seats. Prices come only from the Info-Center, and no meeting place is named.

Malpensa

NCC bays at Terminal 1 Arrivals, and a reserved area reached from the two free-flow lanes on the Terminal 2 north Arrivals front. The free Polmone waiting area is closed to taxis, NCC, hotel and car park shuttles and public transport.

Which airports publish nothing for pre-booked transfers?

Five, and each is silent in its own way. Where an airport publishes no zone and no permit, the public car park rule is the whole rule.

Munich

No zone, no permit and no waiting rule for pre-booked transfers, chauffeur cars or minibuses. Its transfer page is a directory of firms.

Stansted

No waiting area, no permit and no separate pick-up point. Its taxi page covers only the on-airport operator.

Geneva

Says private hire must follow its access regulations, then publishes neither those regulations, nor a pick-up zone, nor a permit scheme.

Schiphol

Names one professional stop, for app-ordered taxis and crew transport, and no place for any other pre-booked car.

Luton

Names a place and no more: the Drop Off and Pick Up Zone or an agreed meeting area, with the Hackney carriage rank beyond Bus Bay A.

Which airports want a permit, and what does one cost?

Four of these airports issue or sell something before the vehicle may work the kerb, and only Zurich and Nice print a price.

Zurich

The limousine service permit is CHF 180 a month before tax, applied for by post. The bus and coach permit is CHF 120 a month and is the one issued for minibuses over nine seats including the driver. An occasional operator buys a single trip ticket at the gate instead, CHF 10 for the first 10 minutes at Arrival Services.

Nice

A company activity authorisation, the driver's blue badge (CIZCV) and a vehicle macaron: €360 a year before tax per vehicle, half price from 1 September, or a card of 5 entries for €39. The drop-off macaron is free, and the booking confirmation is shown on demand.

Innsbruck

A business carrying passengers may use the car parks for that work only with an authorisation from a limited quota and its own agreement with the airport company. No fee is published, and no pick-up zone.

Schiphol

The App pick-up point on Koepelstraat, stops E1 to E6, needs a valid Schiphol vehicle pass, whose price is not published.

Malpensa

The ordinance does not say whether an NCC driver needs an airport permit for the NCC bays. The barrier-protected reserved lanes beside them do need prior authorisation from the operator SEA.

Manchester

No permit. An optional Private Hire Concession Card costs £38.50 and takes up to 40% off forecourt and car park charges.

Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton publish no permit for an outside private hire vehicle. Salzburg names no permit for P5, only a prepaid card or a billing arrangement, and does not say in words that none is needed.

Repeat entries carry a price of their own. Heathrow charges again on every entry to its drop-off areas, and Nice a flat €80 on every entry from the fourth by one number plate in 24 hours. Zurich charges twice over: on the public Arrival 1 and 2 curbside lane, more than two entries within two hours cost an extra CHF 50 plus CHF 1 a minute; in waiting area P12-300, a single trip ticket entering more than once within two hours costs an extra CHF 4 plus CHF 4 an hour.

Where does a van over 2 metres go?

Most of these car parks stop at 2 metres, so a tall 9-seater is a question of which entrance rather than which airport.

Heathrow

Terminal 2 overheight area 3 m, Terminal 3 ground floor 2.75 m, and the Fast Track and overheight entrance at Terminal 5. Over 2 m high or 2.1 m wide at Terminal 4: Park & Ride.

Gatwick

North Terminal Car Park 5 1.8 m, Car Park 6 2.1 m, South Terminal 2 m, and Long Stay has no height restriction. Over eight seats: the coach park.

Manchester

2 m in the multi-storeys and on the Terminal 2 lower forecourt. Minibuses up to 16 seats use the over-height car parks.

Luton

2.1 m in Terminal Car Parks 1 and 2, and Mid Stay and Long Stay have no height restriction. Its pick-up page allows 9 seats, its drop-off page 19.

Stansted

Under 2.2 m or fewer than nine seats including the driver: the Short Stay car parks, Green multi-storey 2 m.

Schiphol

2 m in the multi-storey and underground car parks, P3 Unsheltered above that. The coach stops take only Road Traffic Act category Bus, 9 or more seats including the driver.

Munich

2 m entry height, anything higher to the signposted Economy car park P50.

Vienna

K3 2.30 m, Parking space C 2.50 m, Car Park 3 2.05 m, Car Park 4 2 m.

Innsbruck

2.30 m into the multi-storey car park. P1 and P3 are open air.

Salzburg

2.10 m into the multi-storey, roof boxes counted in.

Zurich

2 m in most car parks, 2.2 m in P4, more in P38, P60 and P65. Over 2 m on the kerbside lane needs the bus and coach permit.

Geneva

2 m as standard, 1.90 m in P51, 2.40 m on level -3 of P26. Taller than that, call the Parking Control Centre.

Nice

P2 1.85 m, P5 2.10 m, P3 2.20 m, P6 2.30 m, and Parking PF takes oversize vehicles without printing a figure.

Malpensa

The free Polmone bars anything over 2.10 m high, 5.00 m long or 2.50 m wide.

What does a minibus or coach pay at the bay?

Above the seat limit the bay replaces the car park, and what it costs is set per visit, per permit or by the clock, depending on the airport.

Heathrow

£73.20 including VAT for a forecourt permit and slot, 20 minutes on the stand. No permit is needed before 06:00 or after 22:30.

Gatwick

£25.78 for three hours in the coach park.

Manchester

£25 through AIRDAT for the Terminal 3 bus stop C, free at the Terminal 2 stops.

Luton

A £30 permit for bay M, from 20 seats and only with reversing cameras, bought at the APCOA office in Mid Stay.

Stansted

£17 per pick-up. Dropping off is free.

Schiphol

€19.95 for 25 minutes, with free waiting at P41 for up to 6 hours.

Nice

€16.50 before tax per visit up to an hour, from ten seats.

Vienna

€7 up to an hour at the Charterbus Terminal.

Zurich

CHF 6 for 30 minutes at stand R.

Malpensa

The Terminal 1 bus area is open only to operators holding an agreement won through a public selection.