Confusion and calm as Melbourne Airport unveils new pick-up, drop-off zones

After 56 years of operation, Melbourne Airport’s departures ramp has officially closed, with new services rolled out to travellers on Tuesday morning.

Besides a few slightly lost passengers and concerns about additional charges, the new system flowed fairly smoothly and experienced minimal traffic congestion.

The closure of the departure ramp has ended kerbside pick-up and drop-off for terminals 1, 2 and 3. From Tuesday, cars were diverted to the new pick-up and drop-off zone inside the airport’s undercover car park.

The new zone is connected to the airport via a skybridge. After drop-off, departing travellers have a walk of between 172 and 350 metres to terminals, while arriving travellers heading to the pick-up zone have a stroll of between 285 and 380 metres. Buggies and other support services will be available for travellers with disability.

However, the new zone levels do not align with arrival and departures. Passengers leaving Melbourne are dropped off on level 3 of the car park, but have to travel to level 2 for departures. Those being picked up exit the airport on the ground floor, but have to travel to level 2 for collection.

On Tuesday morning, the walk from the drop-off zone to terminal 1 took about 3½ minutes.

Mark Hawes waited about 20 minutes at the new pick-up zone to collect his brother and sister-in-law, who had flown from the United Kingdom.

“I gave my brother instructions about meeting outside the Park Royal Hotel [where the previous pick-up zone was], so this is all new to me,” he said.

Hawes said signage and instructions into the new zone were smooth. But parking at the pick-up zone was only free for the first five minutes, and it was unclear how much he would have to pay upon leaving.

“There were no issues coming in here,” he said. “It wasn’t clear though that this was five-minute parking, and it also wasn’t clear that we were perhaps going to be charged on the way out. I don’t know whether we are or not, but it’s been suggested.”

Under the new system, travellers have five minutes to wait in the pick-up area before being moved to another section of the car park, where they can wait for 15 minutes before having to move on or be charged for parking.

Drivers dropping off travellers at the airport now take Exit 19 to Naarm Way, which is one turn earlier than people are used to. Drivers then follow Naarm Way to the T123 drop-off hub at level three.

Drivers collecting arriving passengers use the same exit, but enter level 2 for the dedicated pick-up area.

Taxi, Uber and other ride-share drivers use the same drop-off zone, but are able to pick up travellers from the previous area – which was still heavily congested on Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday morning, Jenny Papilakakis was picking up her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, who had flown in from Singapore, and said she had “studied up” on the new system before making the journey.

Her daughter-in-law, Eleni Papilakakis, said the experience walking from international arrivals to pick-up with luggage and little children in tow had been fairly easy; however, she noted that there were more Melbourne Airport workers in high-vis vests assisting travellers than there were passengers.

Melbourne Airport chief executive Lorie Argus said most travellers welcomed the changes.

“We appreciate it as a little bit further to walk, but certainly for our people that need accessibility support, we have our buggies, and we have our Travellers Aid,” she said. “So we’re doing absolutely everything that we can.”

Argus said there were no plans at this stage to install a travelator on the skybridge due to expenses and expansion plans for the airport.

“It just didn’t work from an engineering perspective, and because the building does come out for the expansion, we would have had to tear it out to build the building,” she said.

She explained the misalignment between arrival and departure levels, saying, “in a perfect world, we’d like to have no level changes”.

“Departures Drive was built in 1970, and we had 155,000 travellers that year,” Argus said. “We had 127,000 travellers last weekend on one day for the AFL grand final. So the reality is that that road was exceeding capacity.”

Melbourne Airport estimates that more than 100,000 people travel through the airport daily, with annual passenger numbers predicted to reach 75 million by 2047.

Uber driver Fawzi Moshi said on his second time using the new drop-off area on Tuesday, he was able to navigate it without problem.

“This morning was confusing because it was the first day for me, the first pick-up for me,” he said.

Moshi said Uber’s systems were still not displaying the new pick-up and drop-off systems, but the experience would be smoother once they were.

Melbourne Airport is hoping the relatively smooth launch morning will be replicated in a few weeks when the airport gets busier for the Spring Racing Carnival and Christmas.

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