I’ve had the privilege of visiting Melbourne International Airport four times in the last two months and oh my god… what is going on with the parking.
It’s absolute chaos. Construction everywhere. Whole sections of parking on the lower levels closed off. You drive around in circles just trying to find a spot, and when you finally do, you feel like you’ve won the lottery.
But the real icing on the cake? The lifts.
I’m not exaggerating when I say I saw queues of up to 45 minutes just to get a lift up or down. At each section, only one lift was working. One. People standing there with luggage, kids, elderly parents, just waiting and waiting. It’s honestly ridiculous.
I’ve noticed new signs saying the lifts are being upgraded. Fair enough, upgrades are needed. But I don’t remember seeing any of that two months ago. Maybe I missed it. Either way, the level of inconvenience right now is next level, especially for older passengers or anyone with mobility issues.
Surely this kind of thing needs better planning. You can’t shut down parking sections and have lifts out at the same time without expecting absolute bottlenecks.
Anyway, rant over. Just needed to get that off my chest. Anyone else had the same experience recently?
Posted by afterbuddha
16 Comments
OP, i truly hope you posted that while waiting for a lift and you are just upset, because it does not worth it dwelling over little inconveniences like these in life 🙂
100% agree. Also the walk from the non-premium parking area to the lifts, and then from the lifts across to the bridges and then to the terminal is huge for people with mobility issues (& even worse if you then have to take the stairs because of the lifts being crammed) and there’s not a seat or bench to be found along the way. The airport part once you go through security is enough of a walk without losing a ton of spoons just walking from the car to the terminal. We ended up splurging on valet parking when we travelled at Christmas, mostly because we had a ridiculously early flight on Xmas eve and I knew I would be running on fumes from the get-go and while it wasn’t cheap it made things so much more manageable… just another chronic illness tax. Improving accessibility helps *everyone* and at an airport that doesn’t just start from when you enter the terminal.
Was there last week. I just drove past all the people doing laps and went to the upper levels where there was plenty of parking.
Also the closed off areas are due to construction and renovations. When the construction is completed they will reopen those areas.
Hope this helps.
That fence is non-compliant.
Melbourne International Carpark.
Melbourne as a whole…. Seems it’s one big grift and then the lotus eaters all come out to watch all the bullshit sport… nothing much else happens down here
“Shemozzle” haven’t heard that word in years, brilliant👌
Pro complainer
I tell you what’s worst than construction: no construction
The lifts were more of a far queue than a near queue, then?
Looks like the start of the G5 Building mission in Perfect Dark
Hard agree, absolutely woeful.
I also had to do a pick up at domestic, and when I arrived, the friend I was picking up was coming in on a Jetstar flight. Not being a Jetstar flyer myself, I had no idea the pick up was in a different area. So after discovering this, I try and drive from the main pick up area across to terminal 4 pick up. Same w prince, absolute shit show of driving in circles, extreme poor signage, and twice nearly ended up back in the freeway trying to get across to terminal. When it was finally in my sights, but I’m in ground floor and cannot see how to drive up to level 1, I ask the attendant and she tells me the only way is to do an illegal turn just a bit further up and then turn around. Horrible experience.
Its better than it was. We as a family travel about 4 times or more a year so we know the airport very well. Its always being pretty bad for the so called most liveable city in the world but its slowly improved over time.
Be thankful I guess that there’s a huge overhaul happening to mitigate it all in the future and hopefully we can be on par with European airports soon.
When is this construction work on the parking expected to be finishing?
They’re rebuilding this entire area to be the new pick up drop off for passengers at the airport. The current area on the ground floor will be used for buses, etc.
They’re building the new drop off area in the car park there
That place is a freaking maze