​When your holiday ends at Edinburgh Airport, it’s frankly difficult not to complain - Vladimir McTavish

​I’m back on the road again this week, travelling down to London, across to East Anglia and back via Leeds and trying to plan an itinerary in the face of train strikes and Storm Agnes. It’s not all glamour in this job.

The passenger experience at Arrivals, when we are not spending money, is routinely grim, says Vladimir McTavish

I hope I’m more fortunate than my friend James Nokise. James’ eleven-hour journey from London to Edinburgh ended in a three-hour drive from Preston in the back of a black cab. His ordeal made the pages of the papers, as he had given a running commentary of his odyssey on Twitter.

I’ve had more than my share of travel chaos already this week. I suppose those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to afford an overseas holiday during a cost of living crisis should not complain. But when that holiday ends in Arrivals at Edinburgh Airport, it frankly is difficult not to complain.

The passenger experience in Departures at Edinburgh is top class. Security is normally pretty efficient and the bars, shops and cafes cannot be faulted. And the airport obviously make lots of money out of this. Conversely, the passenger experience at Arrivals, when we are not spending money, is routinely grim.

Arriving back from Mallorca, we had to wait for thirty minutes on the tarmac right outside our gate. According to our Ryanair pilot, someone had parked their plane in the way of our route to the gate.

Once we finally got off the plane and negotiated our way up and down various sets of stairs to passport control, we finally reached the baggage hall. Where we had to wait over an hour for our luggage. During which time no-one from either Edinburgh Airport or Ryanair was on hand to tell us what had happened to our suitcases.

All this time, our daughter was waiting for us in the pick up zone. If you haven’t already heard, Edinburgh Airport drop off fee has increased from four pounds per minute to five pounds. That’s a 25 per cent increase, over twice the rate of inflation. That’s £60 an hour which for an average 40-hour week comes to nearly £125,000 per year. Perhaps if they spent some of that money employing more baggage handlers we might not have to wait so long for our luggage.