Airport parking fees back, kerbside drop-off still banned

| 18/01/2022 | 107 Comments
Parking ticket machine at ORIA

(CNS): Parking fees will be back at Owen Roberts International Airport from 1 February, but private drivers are still not allowed to drop off or pick people up from the airport kerb. Cayman Islands Airports Authority (CIAA) officials said an upgrade to the ‘pay parking’ system has been rolled out so people can pay with a card at the exit as well as cash at the machines inside the airport.

While there is a drop-off zone in the short-term parking lot for departing passengers, drivers picking up arriving passengers must park in the short-term lot. They then have five free minutes before they will be required to pay $2 per hour.

CIAA Board Chair Johann Moxam told CNS that the airport is still in talks with the UK to address the drop-off ban, which was introduced for security reasons.

“The CIAA has been in discussions with the relevant authorities and has proposed solutions that are logical and cost-effective,” he said, adding they had been presented to Cabinet and the governor’s office. “The changes had been mandated in part through the governor’s office, which has the constitutional responsibility for national safety and security concerns, including all ports of entry in the Cayman Islands. The CIAA Board of Directors and management want this matter satisfactorily resolved.”

Moxam said the risk analysis found that both ORIA and the airport in Cayman Brac are low risk.

“Local law enforcement agencies have also confirmed this status,” he said. “A lot of work has been done and discussions had with the governor’s office and relevant overseas regulatory agencies to find a sensible solution that is appropriate for Cayman’s risk profile. In my opinion, what was originally recommended was excessive and defies logic, given the evidence provided and our low-risk status under the current circumstances.”

Moxam said he was confident that a viable solution would be accepted and implemented during the coming weeks.

In the meantime, only authorised public transportation and tour operators are permitted to drop off or pick up passengers at the kerb in front of the main terminal.

The standard parking rates at ORIA for short term parking are:

The first five minutes are free
Over 5 minutes = CI$2 per hour (or part thereof)
$48 for the day

Long-Term Parking is CI$7.00 per day (or part thereof)


Share your vote!


How do you feel after reading this?
  • Fascinated
  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Bored
  • Afraid
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: ,

Category: Local News, Travel

Comments (107)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Truth says:

    Welcome to third world. Good luck finding costumer service here as it has left the island for good. Great place to drive if you don’t like following any laws. Everything cost twice as much because if your here you are paying for the civil service food, shelter, health cost, etc. because they are by law honorable so do not have to work or follow any laws or rules but you do. Have fun but plan on staying and paying for an extra two weeks if you come in contact with those who follow no rules.

  2. vera says:

    how about car park within the airport grounds for “meeters” to wait and receive a text or call to drive around and collect their passengers.

    • Anonymous says:

      You mean a cell phone lot like almost all US airports have. That would make way too much common sense for our Cayman airport idiots. They have regulations to follow, not customers to serve!

  3. Prince Andrew says:

    You mean Cayman cannot fart without permission from the crown fco and mummy

  4. Anonymous says:

    For arrivals, cars will just wait in the parking lots of nearby businesses, wait for a call from the person arriving, then pulling into short term parking for 5 minutes.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Five free minutes. I can see many people staying in there 4.5 minutes, exiting, looping around again and re-entering, trying their luck with another 4.5 minutes!

  6. Anonymous says:

    We had nearly 502,739 air arrivals in 2019, which is nearly 3000 passengers per day going through our airport. Irreversibly embarrassing first impressions aside, let’s start with how many pieces of card paper and how much ink do those machines hold, and how often are they going to be serviced – ie. lubricated, filled/emptied? Our airport parking machines have had a poor reliability track record at the best of times. Can we even get through a normal travel day with this many pickup/dropoff vehicles cycling through? It seems CIAA/CITA/DoT/PTU are aiming for cars/taxis to be lined up past Fosters and arriving passengers getting heat stroke. I hope the media sharpens their tools in 2022 and when things don’t make sense, to drill down a layer or two and start naming the specific officers that are behind these counter-intuitive policies, seek their comment, and/or cite/link the specific regulations they are trying to comply with, if those exist. Let those involved in these stories try to explain themselves and justify. Cayman needs more “journalism” than “reporting” and I’d pay $50/mo for that. Thanks CNS.

    CNS: 1) You don’t know what questions we ask and apparently have no idea how difficult it is to get answers. We can wait indefinitely for answers or we can post the story. Which would you prefer?
    2) How can you not notice how often we first find and then link any relevant information we can find, which is incredibly time-consuming? I’m so glad you’re willing to pay for this. Thank you for your kind donation!
    3) Seeking comments from those involved – you have literally just read an article that did that. Can you explain your complaint again?

  7. Anonymous says:

    At most airports in the USA the first half hour is free.
    And that is how it should be!

    But they also have car waiting area.
    At BNA, the waiting area even has an arrival board showing went flight arrives at the gate or if they are delayed!! Imagine that! (obviously there is more space to do this)
    But wait! There’s more!
    At the arrivals level, they have pull thru parking spots with timers overhead. You get 3(?) minutes to sit waiting on your party but if they are not out, you pull through and go around again.

    At RSW, the car waiting area has a gas station with reasonably comparable gas prices to make car rental return easier.
    They also have the first 30 min free in the parking garage.

    Basically, all they had to do was to google “best airports” (or something to that effect) and then go VISIT THEM to see how they work!!!! And they could have taken that Canadian twit with them to investigate airports. We may have ended up with shade/rain protection just as one example… Probably the dumbest design in a tropical climate ever.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Yet, anyone can wheel right up to the curb at Washington DC’s Reagan International Airport (USA’s Capitol Citadel), and not only tag their checked bag right there on the pavement, but watch it go onto the baggage conveyor before entering the terminal. What are we doing wrong?

  9. Anonymous says:

    As if any self-respecting suicidal terrorist would forgo a whole planet of softer higher priority targets to endure our quarantine rules, create a local staging lab, amass fissile materials, not scout the target layout, then risk forfeiting a generation of martyrdom payments, while pausing to take a short-term parking ticket for the lot outside of the maximum effective blast radius, because they are too scared to use the completely unsecured and open taxi lane. This is not Wazir Akbar Khan. We should know the adversary, and reconcile that to a risk-based threat list. We aren’t anywhere near that list.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Yes blame the Governor because he needs to explain to the Caymanian people this ACL ltd contract and why there was no tendering process and why UK officials can march up and down in OUR Airport which WE PAiD FOR doing as they feel like .UK did not spend a 1 Cent on our Airport . This is not Right Cayman ?

    • Anonymous says:

      But they did spend almost $10 million on free vaccines for us, paid for by UK taxpayers. Coincidentally and ironically, most of those vaccines where actually administered at said airport.

  11. Cayman Sanction says:

    What security Reasons ?? You must mean a very mysterious security breach incident that has now enable a UK company ACL Ltd to get this very lucrative business contract to run our Airport without any tendering process or transparency whatsoever done by the now Sir Alden and his cronies from the previous CIAA board ! Those UK nationals who were running around on the waterfront doing clandestine surveys prior to this mysterious contract award speaks to the type of government and certainly to the now titles and awards bestowed on them. Please take down this utter foolishness at our airport which is inconveniencing law abiding Caymanians and their families and certainly not others who continue to breach the rules and security measures at the Airport.

    • drop off says:

      How can the UK authorities ban dropping off passengers at the ORIA terminal when it is permitted at all the terminals at Heathrow?.

    • Anonymous says:

      The previous CIAA Board had nothing to do with it. I was on that Board and never heard of ACL.

      • anon says:

        well you do now and I will tell you something its working well already !!!!!!!!! No more chaos and a manageable operation. Good job you are not on the board anymore. All the airlines have taken to it like a duck to water after all they are used to operating in slot facilitated airports. There are really good quotes from Sheikh Mohammed. “change can be scary but do you know whats scarier ? allowing fear to stop you from growing, evolving and progressing.
        and ” Its not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent it is the most responsive to change” People in cayman are 10 years behind the rest of the world and are totally blinkered

    • Anonymous says:

      Complete nonsense

    • anon says:

      ACL has nothing to do with any security breach !! there is some mixed up people on these forums who know absolutely FA

  12. Anonymous says:

    Thanks for your input, we all disagree.

  13. Anonymous says:

    just more pandering to the taxi cartel….
    welcome to wonderland.

    • Anonymous says:

      The idea that the largely imported taxi drivers and associated cartel have been appropriately vetted and are somehow less of a security risk than thousands of international lawyers, bankers, accountants and Caymanians, is farcical. There are many fine people among the taxi operators, but the majority are not deserving of any highest security treatment then anyone else. Often, far from it.

    • Hubert says:

      Developers and the taxi cartel run this island. You need to understand this fact.

  14. Anonymous says:

    And when do you plan to introduce parking fees in Cayman Brac?

  15. Anonymous says:

    For security reasons?

    Anyone could literally walk into the governors house from the beach and do anything.

    • Anonymous says:

      It’s to be in compliance with international agreements I assume. CAL isn’t the only airline using this airport.

  16. Anonymous says:

    Is it 1 or 2 planes a day that land a few hundred people?

    It’s all typical cayman BS

  17. Sheriff says:

    This is still completely stupid. There is no reason not to allow kerbside pick up.

  18. Anonymous says:

    It’s cool just make sure you go and grab an extra ticket before you leave and then you can just exit without paying

  19. Anonymous says:

    And the CIAA are still at it! I went there there a week or so ago to pick up a friend. As I walked to the outside waiting area I was stopped by a security guard who said I couldn’t approach the building and all visitors were being told to stay on the other side of the road. When I asked why I was told it was a safety issue but he wouldn’t elaborate more. I refused to move until I got a clearer answer and was told that a few days before they had a crowd of people by the outside door and were now instructing people to stay away from the building.
    Their job is crowd control! It’s an airport and they can’t even do this! Their solution is to now not only move cars away from the building but apparently people too, without any contingency plan in place. The net result was that the people waiting for arriving passengers were waiting in the road and in the sun. Isn’t that a safety issue?
    These people have forgotten that they are in the customer service business and what pays for the airport are the people that use it either through taxes or other charges. Adding more and more stupid regulations without thinking through the customer service aspects first is a recipe for disaster.
    The whole management team there need a complete shake up.

    • anon says:

      ever heard about trying to enforce 6ft social distancing ? everyone crowding around the exit doors is unacceptable

  20. Anonymous says:

    Because a terrorist is going to give a $### about traffic regulations. This is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard.

  21. Anonymous says:

    make the short term parking free for an 30 mins, it takes 5mins plus to gat the machine’s to read the ticket

    • Anonymous says:

      Or you get stuck behind some idiot who doesn’t know how to use the machine.

      • Big Bobo In West Bay says:

        More likely the machine is broken which has happened to me twice after 12 midnight while trying to get out of the parking lot.

        We’re you one of the idiots honking at me?

    • Anonymous says:

      …and involves an unnecessary super-spreader physical entry into the airport terminal. Mindless.

  22. Anonymous says:

    Thank you Mr. Moxam your honesty and direct style is appreciated. Now we understand where this crazy idea came from.

  23. Two Cents says:

    Can the final 30ft or so of the barrier between the 2 exit lanes at the junction with Roberts Dr be removed? As it is, all taxis are confined to the left-turn exit lane and all private vehicles exiting the short-stay carpark are confined to the right-turn lane.
    Also, can a light be installed above the ticket station at the exit illuminating the drivers’ side of the station and making it easier to see where the ticket is to be inserted? The extra bright display screen directly above the slot makes it difficult to see where the slot actually is.

    • Anon says:

      How about taxis start charging a fair price. 10
      Dollars max
      To smb from
      Airport?

      • Big Bobo In West Bay says:

        9:30, Don’t mess with the taxi cartel.

      • Anonymous says:

        A young Caymanian taxi driver charged me a $5 “Airport surcharge” last year when I went to Little Cayman. When I queried him about it, he said it had just been implemented the previous week. When I returned, I asked the taxi dispatcher and he said I must have misunderstood the taxi driver because there was no such surcharge. Yeah… I misunderstood him charging me $5 extra to make my 4-mile taxi trip to the airport cost $24. Caymankind at its pirate-heritage finest.

  24. Anonymous says:

    You can sit at Fosters and buy a pattie. Until your cellphones rings to go meet your party for $Zero. Duh…..

  25. Anonymous says:

    So the UK believes that terrorist don’t drive taxis..I would be more concerned about them than someone dropping off an elderly or disabled person..

    Are they doing this same foolishness at Heathrow or Gatwick? I’ll bet not..

  26. Anonymous says:

    Welcome to Cayman Islands…..”The land of the unbelievable”

  27. Anonymous says:

    Heathrow airport allow kerb drop off right at the terminal for small fee, why we do same here also install steel/concrete bollards along the edge of the side road to stop any vehicle ramming the terminal building.

    • Anonymous says:

      Seriously…..you know this is cayman right? Terrorists might have bank accounts here but I doubt they want to bomb us

    • anon says:

      a small fee ?? 5 pounds actually at heathrow and its still 30 metres from the terminal doors !!! so CI5 5 !! you happy to pay that ?

  28. Zulu says:

    Johann …. I hoped you get things sorted ,but no …. The system is …. Not just ignorant but utterly stupid
    Security ??? From what. The WBFF ( west bay freedom fighters)
    Or worse. The BTLF ( BoddenTown Liberation Front)
    I can go to the play park and be closer to plains , I can pic at customs and be closer .
    What are you guys thinking off?
    With in a short time it has proven that PACT is a cluster…….., and a failure full of crooks and cronies .the same thing pact complained about pre election, is exactly if not worse
    Shame on PACT

  29. Anonymous says:

    Just park for free in the trails behind Uncle Clems.

  30. Anonymous says:

    Upgrade? Used to do it all the time before someone broke it.

  31. Anonymous says:

    CNS is the word not Curbside?

    CNS: Kerb is the British spelling, curb is US. We do curb our enthusiasm, however.

  32. Anonymous says:

    History tells it is the wrong side that has been closed and to the wrong users. It proved deadly to cross to the long term carpark. Taxis are still allowed access.

  33. Anonymous says:

    You can still drop off and pick up passengers in front of the terminals at MIA International Airpot and Heathrow. So what is the point of this bullshit from our ass backwards government.

    Besides if someone wanted to drive up to the curb and drop off a bomb, exactly who is going to stop them? A hapless security officer gonna chase them down the road? All someone has to do is have a bomb in a bag, walk into the terminal put it down and walk out.

    So how is this making security any better? Or is this a money maker for someone?

    • Joe says:

      Why exactly would someone bomb the roadway in front of an airport anyway? Wouldn’t even make the USA news.

    • anon says:

      at heathrow its still 30 meters from the terminal doors and also you have to pay 5 pounds to do it. You obviously do not travel and have not a got a clue ! just rant on without substance. get your facts right numbty

  34. Anonymous says:

    Sweepstake on how long the payment system will last before breaking based on past form? I’ll take “less than 2 hours”.

    • Anonymous says:

      wasn’t 600k spent on a new system only to fail within 3 weeks. CIG routinely purchase something that is not tried and tested. Pelican crossing is another example. The most stupidest excuse for the safety cross walk. Only a jogger can believe that by running past and pressing the button the cars in .00001 of a second chance, will stop for you.

      • Anonymous says:

        can you pay at the exit machine with a credit card yet….. used to work years ago until they were updated

  35. Anonymous says:

    You can now actually get your car closer to an aircraft on Crewe Rd at the end of the runway than outside the terminal!

  36. Anonymous says:

    I think it would be cheaper for the CI Gov to just keep parking free. With all the continuing issues they have with the pay system and staffing issues. Just keep it free, I’ve been to many an airport in the US that have free parking, with such a small population it must be feasible given that these small US cities can keep it free.

    • Sarasota Steve says:

      Free parking at US airports? Where? Certainly nowhere in Florida.

      • Anonymous says:

        The first hour is free at Tampa International. The first 15-30 minutes should be free, you might spend 5 minutes trying to get the machine to accept your ticket or worse yet you end up calling someone to come and fix the machine.

        • Sarasota Steve says:

          9:52, You do not know what you are talking about. The cheapest is $1.00 per 20 minutes but NOTHING is free in terms of parking at Tampa Airport. I know as I go through there twice a month.

      • Anonymous says:

        Florida is hardly anything we should be wanting to copy

        • Anonymous says:

          We copy their economy or do you prefer the north of England.

          • Orlando Bob says:

            Just don’t copy us in Florida on public health policy.

            A total disaster. Though excellent airports.

        • Anonymous says:

          Great airports in Florida. World class airports similar to Bermuda Airport.

          We have a long way to go here to reach such a standard.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yup a few regional airports do, but their population is still much larger than ours.

    • Anonymous says:

      It’s about control not money.

      Why TF would they need car parking money when they waste $1.5 million a day on wages.

    • Anonymous says:

      It is free if you know how to use the system. Pull a ticket to enter parking then discard. Pull another ticket to exit parking then take it to pay area within 5 minutes.

      Free all day, lol.

  37. Anonymous says:

    Typical. When they do something unpopular (stupid, unnecessary, illogical) blame the Governor. Smh.

    • Johann Moxam says:

      Dear Anonymous 4:41pm

      Everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, what has been stated is factual and reflects the reality of the current situation. Many persons may wish otherwise but the these are the facts or cards we have been dealt.

      The constitutional responsibility for all ports of entry and all national safety and security concerns in the Cayman Islands are matters that are the exclusive remit of the Governors Office.

      Best regards

      Johann Moxam

  38. Big Bobo In West Bay says:

    Why do the most simple things always have to be so complex in the Cayman Islands?

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.