From today, you are no longer allowed to collect passengers outside Brisbane Airport’s domestic terminal.

Instead, there is free parking in a new pick-up area.

The catch, it’s a four hundred metre hike from the terminal and it’s only free for 20 minutes.

Tess Gilfedder reports.

TRANSCRIPT

Airport workers guided the way and helped travellers with their bags, celebrating the new free parking area.

But not everyone was buying it.

Vox 1:”Right now it’s a little bit confusing.”

Vox 2:”It’s quite a way away, but yeah it’s alright.”

Vox 3:”At the moment it’s confusing.”

Vox 4:”It’s just long, that’s about it.”

Parking here is free for twenty minutes, but after that normal short-term charges apply.

It’s designed to reduce congestion in the old pick-up zone, which is now for drop-offs only.

Leonie Vandeven, Brisbane Airport Corporation:”It takes time to actually load bags and say your hellos and move along. So for every car that was picking up, there was four cars that couldn’t drop off during our peak times.”

Passengers will now have to walk about ten minutes to be picked up, but some exceptions will be made.

Leonie Vandeven, Brisbane Airport Corporation:”We recommend that people with disabilities or mobility problems still pick up on the departures road. There’s six disabled parking bays there that allow 30 minutes free parking.”

The new changes will be watched closely by consumer groups.

Ian Jarratt, Vice President, Queensland Consumers Association:”You want a hassle-free approach when you go to the airport. You want things to work easily and quickly. You obviously don’t want to pay a small fortune for it. But parking is an integral part of the arrangement.”

The new pick-up area is the final piece in a $350 million upgrade. It comes as passenger numbers continue to increase, approaching that of major international terminals like Heathrow.

Leonie Vandeven, Airport Parking:”There’s currently 16 million people who come through the domestic terminal alone each year. And that figure’s going to grow to about 33 million by 2028.”

To make up for any inconvenience, Brisbane Airport is also offering 15 minutes free in all car parks until the end of November.

Tess Gilfedder, QUT News.