Review: Cork Airport parking charges and other facilities.

cantalach

I came back from holiday yesterday having been away for just over 15 days, during which time the car was in the long term car park at Cork Airport. The parking charges came to a whopping €108! This broke down as twice the weekly charge of €45 plus twice the daily charge of €9. I was a bit shocked to put it mildly.

In a monopoly situation like this, there is only one way to describe such a massive discrepancy between cost and price: profiteering. This is a disgraceful abuse of the travelling public by the Cork Airport Authority and the Competition Authority should be doing something about it.

It perhaps wouldn't hurt so much if the shiny new Cork Airport provided a fabulous travelling experience, but it doesn't. We flew out on a Saturday morning in mid-July, when every airport in the country is jammed full of families heading off for the sun. You'd think that anyone with half a brain could have anticipated a busy morning in the terminal. Not the people managing the main cafeteria just outside the security check however. They had a grand total of one employee on the tills and she was also responsible for preparing the teas and coffees! To add to her woes, the till was hopelessly short of change. This resulted in people having to step to one side and wait for her to have change for their €20. Ballsier customers just held everything up while they strolled back to their table and got change from another family member.

Again, this is an abuse of a monopoly position, in this case by the cafeteria franchisee. But the Cork Airport Authority must ensure that the franchisee is meeting minimum standards of service provision and it is a huge dereliction of their responsibilities to the travelling public not to do so.

Davidth88

I have been through Cork twice since the new terminal opened.

I agree with the catering , poor best describes it.

The immigration is a joke , one person doing EU I was queuing for 15 mins

The baggage HAS to be the slowest I have ever come across , it took 50 mins for my bag to come off, you would get 1-2 bags then a gap while the bloke I assume had a fag/cup of tea then 1-2 bags more etc etc. This happened both times.

They went on and on about the jet-ways , but neither EI or FR use the things ..... waste of time/money.

The terminal is lovely to look at but not managed well, at least the old terminal has nice fish tanks you could look while waiting for your bags, perhaps the fish are now running the terminal

whippet

cantalach wrote: »

I came back from holiday yesterday having been away for just over 15 days, during which time the car was in the long term car park at Cork Airport. The parking charges came to a whopping €108! This broke down as twice the weekly charge of €45 plus twice the daily charge of €9. I was a bit shocked to put it mildly.

works out at about €7.20 per day, I am sure you had a look at the costs before you decided to park there.

There are some UK airports and the long term parking for 5 days could cost as much.

While the airport authority is in essence a monolopy, it isn't a charity and €7.20 per day isn't a whole lot of money to pay for parking taking everything in to consideration.

Going away for 15 days, you should really have looked at other alternatives like, taxis, bus, lift from familiy member etc .... if you felt €7.20 a day was excessive. Or you could have parked the car up on a grass verge close to the airport and taken your chances that the car would be there when you get back.

Despite what Michael O'Leary preaches from his own pulpit, car parking charges in Irish airports are not a rip off, especially when compared to our nearest neighbours in the uk. How the media don't challenge him when he makes some of these ridicolous claims is beyond me. For instance I paid stg£10 per day for long term parking in conventry airport a few years back .. and for anyone who hasn't been in conventry airport it is literally a shed in an industrial estate with a coffee machine as it's facilities!

cantalach

whippet wrote: »

€7.20 per day isn't a whole lot of money to pay for parking taking everything in to consideration.

For city centre parking €7.20 per day would be a steal. But we're talking about Cork Airport which is almost completely surrounded by empty green fields! If parking was opened to competition (from multiple operators - no point creating a duopoly) private operators could turn some of these fields into long term car parks, and I'm quite confident they'd be able to do better than €108 for two weeks parking.

whippet wrote: »

Going away for 15 days, you should really have looked at other alternatives like, taxis, bus, lift from familiy member etc .... if you felt €7.20 a day was excessive.

Taxi or bus not an option for me unfortunately because I had an oversized luggage item that they wouldn't take.

alpha2zulu

Those parking charges are pretty average for any decent sized Airport in Ireland, UK or Europe for that matter. As a previous poster said, parking in the UK airports tend to be at least as much as Dublin/Cork or Shannon.

The immigration is a joke , one person doing EU I was queuing for 15 mins

Immigration staffing is outside the control of the Airport authorities.

They went on and on about the jet-ways , but neither EI or FR use the things ..... waste of time/money.

There is only the one jetway in Cork. Until recently it was used primarily by Aer Lingus for the Heathrow flights. Earlier this year however the floor collapsed in the jetway whilst connected to an EI bird. I'm not sure wheather it has been even entered back into setvice yet.

FR generally dont use airbridges anywhere on the network unless they absolutely have to. At Gatwick for example they sometimes park at an airbridge gate.

And yeah the catering is pants...Subway being the only semi decent establishment on site.

Davidth88

Hi,

The floor collapsed ! My god thats scary ....... so why isn't it fixed. I know FR never use airbridges to get the turnaround quicker.

The biggest gripe I have with the place is the baggage , it was sooooooo slow both time I used it, now Dublin is slow but Cork was worse and there was only one EI flight arriving both times. I guess this is not the airport but the handling agents, but they need a kick up the a***

The parking is about the same price as Dublin by the looks of it , I paid 9.50 on Sat for one day there, so that seems the sort of standard price.

It's interesting I fly often in CAG in Sardinia which is comprable to Cork, the difference is un-real , much nicer, seems better organised.

However I will say the new terminal looks fantastic , and is nice and light etc .

alpha2zulu

The floor collapsed ! My god thats scary .......

Yeah it is a bit:D
Heres a link to the story!

http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2008/01/21/story53130.asp

Davidth88

You know the really really shocking part of the story from the ' Cork ' Examiner you put there

They spell Birmingham wrong the whole way through the report.

Perhaps people from Brum should start calling Cork ' Cark ' ( Say it with a Cork accent )

The other thing is , this happened in Jan , and I flew through there 2 weeks ago with EI and the thing was still not fixed ( or at least not being used ), thats a 500k asset sitting still for 6 months at least ........ inept !

Tech3

Its great i dont have to pay for parking in the airport:D, people could always chance the industrial estate beside the airport???;)

saram

Long Term Car Park parking charges (including 21.5% VAT) price effective 5th January 2009:

Daily rate (or part thereof) € 9.50


Planning on leaving my car in the car park from Thursday 2pm- Monday 6pm..

Does that mean I will be charged for 5 days..? (5* 9.50 + 21.5 VAT)This is a bit steep!

Are there any alternatives.. For example, Is there any safe place to park in and around the airport or Cork City where I could park and just get a taxi..

Wouldn't that make more sense? I am not familiar with Cork much at all so if anyone can give me some tips about safe places to park..Id be delighted!!

Thoie

saram wrote: »

Long Term Car Park parking charges (including 21.5% VAT) price effective 5th January 2009:

Daily rate (or part thereof) € 9.50


...

Does that mean I will be charged for 5 days..? (5* 9.50 + 21.5 VAT)This is a bit steep!

Not quite, it's inclusive of VAT, so it will be (5*9.50).

mickman

parked there for 15 days recently and it cost 120 euro

blog_blog_blog

7.20 not bad for days parking. Sounds like a rubbish place, Dublin used to be slow to get through,Its now very fast to get into departures, Baggage claim still very slow depending where they park the plane. 15 days parking is a long time ,better to leave car in safe decent area and get taxi.alot cheaper or get a lift, Sure plenty of people looking to make money now, bribe a family member with supposed gifts you will get them on holidays.

lochie101

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has ever parked their car at the airport lodge at cork airport? It's much cheaper than the airport parking so thinking of leaving my car there when i fly out. Just wondering if it's secure and safe?

mickman

what is the airport lodge

lochie101

The airport lodge is a b&b a few mins away from the airport. They offer parking facilities and a shuttle service to the airport.


http://www.airportparkingsite.ie/cork_airport_parking/carparkinfo.aspx?carparkid=2bf9a918-0c5b-4153-be70-100cf0a26849

netwhizkid

Collected people from Cork airport last week off a flight from Palma de Mallorca (Majorca) and they were waiting 1hr 15 minutes for their baggage. Flew into Cork myself last summer on a night flight from Prague and arrived in at around 12.15am and got my bags at 1am and my bag was the first off the carousel. Cork Airport is atrocious for baggage wait times, I also got stung for the 2nd hour in the short term because of the wait making it €5 instead of €2.50.

They also neglected to add a small viewing platform for aviation enthusiasts and you cannot see any planes at all unless inside the secure area. It is nice but like most things in Ireland they cannot do anything right.

phojes

With regard to parking and alternatives, there are a few other options on that website airport parking site. And all are cheaper than the official carpark.

RecessionJohn

Was picking up the elderly parental units at Cork airport yesterday, fairly busy. Parked on the right hand side in a free space. Sat in the car for almost 45mins and the taxi behind me (not in the taxi rank) and 2 vans opposite were there before I arrived and when I got out to cross the way to the arrivals door to meet the elderlies a security guard stopped me and siad I can't leave the car unattended. I pointed out that the taxi behind me was there longer plus 2 vans with no humans present. Suspiciously he told me as the taxi is a PSV (public service vechicle) it can park there for how long it wants and wherever it wants. I tried to point out the error of his information ways but he obviously went through serious training to make mistakes. Taxis park in taxi-designated areas not in set-down areas unless the taxi (as with all other vechicles) are with driver. Very simple and very not hard to understand. This info is according to the airport office.
Moral of my story is: Long-term parking isn't cheap and comparing it to other car-parks in airports in Ireland sort of misses the point. Cork airport is expensive to park in, full stop. Taxis are expensive from the airport also so it's a comfort thing at the end of the day whether you want your car there or not. The new airport looks great, has great staff for the most part but needs to involve joined up thinking to get more people to use it.

cantalach wrote: »

I came back from holiday yesterday having been away for just over 15 days, during which time the car was in the long term car park at Cork Airport. The parking charges came to a whopping €108! This broke down as twice the weekly charge of €45 plus twice the daily charge of €9. I was a bit shocked to put it mildly.

In a monopoly situation like this, there is only one way to describe such a massive discrepancy between cost and price: profiteering. This is a disgraceful abuse of the travelling public by the Cork Airport Authority and the Competition Authority should be doing something about it.

It perhaps wouldn't hurt so much if the shiny new Cork Airport provided a fabulous travelling experience, but it doesn't. We flew out on a Saturday morning in mid-July, when every airport in the country is jammed full of families heading off for the sun. You'd think that anyone with half a brain could have anticipated a busy morning in the terminal. Not the people managing the main cafeteria just outside the security check however. They had a grand total of one employee on the tills and she was also responsible for preparing the teas and coffees! To add to her woes, the till was hopelessly short of change. This resulted in people having to step to one side and wait for her to have change for their €20. Ballsier customers just held everything up while they strolled back to their table and got change from another family member.

Again, this is an abuse of a monopoly position, in this case by the cafeteria franchisee. But the Cork Airport Authority must ensure that the franchisee is meeting minimum standards of service provision and it is a huge dereliction of their responsibilities to the travelling public not to do so.

corcaigh07

any new solution to the ridculious parking charges here? im thinking of the skylink bus with my car safely parked in the city but it may be too awkward as it doesnt stop at many places.

johncm

corcaigh07 wrote: »

any new solution to the ridculious parking charges here? im thinking of the skylink bus with my car safely parked in the city but it may be too awkward as it doesnt stop at many places.

there is a sign by the roundabout offering long term parking for i think €5 per day(not 100% sure of the price). They also offer a shuttle bus to and from the airport. The sign points to the left of the roundabout instead of going right to the airport

Tech3

corcaigh07 wrote: »

any new solution to the ridculious parking charges here? im thinking of the skylink bus with my car safely parked in the city but it may be too awkward as it doesnt stop at many places.

Get a parking permit off someone working for a company in the industrial estate and park there. 10 mins walk to the airport though

bobcat27

You could try www.corkairportparking.com they have an agreement with a few Cork airport parking places. I have never used them though.

dory

johncm wrote: »

there is a sign by the roundabout offering long term parking for i think €5 per day(not 100% sure of the price). They also offer a shuttle bus to and from the airport. The sign points to the left of the roundabout instead of going right to the airport

I saw that too. €5's not bad at all.

I went through Cork airport recently. The security scanner was very slow, much slower than I've ever seen it in Dublin airport. Other than that everything seemed fine. Bring your own sandwiches and it's a lovely airport. I do wish the fish were back though.

And I might be cursing Cork airport on my way home if I have to wait an hour for my bags.

TOPHONCHO

Has anyone ever used Cork Airpark services. Looks like a fair deal. I will be away for 14 days. The official car park will cost me almost 120 euro. This company will give my car a full valeting + free parking while i am away + a courtesy car to and from the airport. Sounds pretty reasonable to me. At least you are getting some return on your money.

jgbyrne99

Yea, the parking charges in Cork Airport are total robbery, the charges are the same as what they were 3 years ago in the middle of the boom.
I use Cork quiet a bit and i could'nt say enough good things about the "International Airport" carparking service.
Its half the price and they drop you off and collect you from the terminal to the Hotel.
A no brainer really..

TOPHONCHO

I used the Car aaaaparking Service while on holidays and would really recommend it. Excellent service .

tropo

tech2 wrote: »

Its great i dont have to pay for parking in the airport:D, people could always chance the industrial estate beside the airport???;)

Is it still possible to park there?

cantalach

People get clamped all the time for doing that.

tropo

Is it safe to park on the Kinsale rd near the roundabout for airport?
do cars get towed?

TheDriver

anyone used the international hotel parking?