The stupidest fee I've ever seen at an airport: the London Heathrow drop off charge

In the past few days, I have departed from London Heathrow after participating in the Farnborough Fair and experienced for the first time, for my own skin, the absurd tax introduced in covid era and then never removed again: the drop off charge.

Every vehicle, both public and private, that enters the perimeter of London Heathrow Is subject to payment of a fee of 5 pounds. The gab is not time-based, but input-based. This means that it doesn't matter if you are a taxi driver, uber or a private citizen accompanying a friend/relative to the airport. Each visit, even in the same day costs " five quid".

The crazy thing is, for example, if you make a mistake in the terminal and realize too late that you have arrived at the wrong one, you will have to pay another 5 pounds as soon as you walk through the gates of the right one.

In my case, I arrived from a hotel near the airport, at Terminal 3, the one that has a "model" A380 in the center of the rotunda at the entrance. A strategy designed to remind us that T3 is, among others, the home of Emirates at LHR.

The Uber passenger, as in my case, does not notice anything because the fee is automatically added to the ride. It changes, however, if a private individual accompanies a relative or friend, in which case there is a dedicated site for payment and, if the balance due is not paid, a fine of £80 per ride is triggered.

If you stay in the hotels near the airport one can move with HotelHoppa the bus that connects facilities with the different terminals. Unfortunately, there are no hotel shuttles at LHR, so you either stay at one of the few facilities directly connected to the terminal, such as Hilton Heathrow at T4, or you have to pay to get to the hotel.