This is the quickest way to pick up passengers at the airport

If your job is to pick up some arriving passengers at the airport, your first instinct is probably to greet them on the airport’s Arrivals level. It would be backward to meet them at Departures, right?

Yes. But the problem with Arrivals is that everyone else is waiting to pick up passengers there too. The Arrivals curb is usually a giant traffic jam, filled with idling cars. Most airports employ security guards to chase you away, forcing you to circle the airport again and again until your passengers finally emerge from the terminal.

Meet arriving passengers at Departures

But on the Departures level of the airport, there’s no traffic jam. Cars pull up, discharge passengers, and drive away. There’s plenty of space for you to pull up and wait — and in most cases, there are no guards yelling at you to circle the airport. Usually, you can wait comfortably at the curb until your loved ones arrive.