If you are picking someone up at Pulkovo, the expensive mistake is arriving on time. You pull up to the terminal the moment the plane lands, wait for your friend to collect a suitcase, and drive out with a 2,000 ₽ charge. The airport gives you exactly fifteen free minutes in the terminal approach lane. Minute sixteen costs 2,000 ₽.

How the fifteen minutes actually work

Minutes 1 to 15 in the terminal approach zone are free. Minutes 16 to 30 cost 2,000 ₽, minutes 31 to 60 another 2,000 ₽, and every further half hour the same again. There is no gentle per-minute scale. The airport also limits how often you may use the free window: once every thirty minutes, with penalties beyond that.

Driving a loop and coming back does not help. On a second entry the meter starts at minute one — 2,000 ₽ straight away. Two transit zones lead to the car parks, and they differ: transit zone 1, serving P1, P2 and P3, gives the same fifteen free minutes, while transit zone 2, serving P8, P10 and P13, gives only five.

Where to wait instead

P0 is free, has 120 spaces and sits three kilometres away on Pulkovskoye Shosse, a 3–5 minute drive from the terminal. P13 charges 300 ₽ per 30 minutes for the first five hours and 2–3 minutes on foot. P2 is 450 ₽ per 30 minutes. P1, the closest, is 1,100 ₽ an hour or 2,100 ₽ a day. P8 is 800 ₽ an hour. P4 is the long-stay option, from 1,100 ₽ for the first day down to 700 ₽ a day after two weeks.

Pay at the exit terminal or online via the QR code on your parking ticket. Do not leave a car outside the marked bays or on the road between Pulkovskoye Shosse and the terminal: cameras run around the clock, reports go to the traffic police, and tow trucks operate on site.

Finding your passenger

Check the arrivals board on the airport website for the real landing time. City buses leave the airport from the first floor and drop departing passengers on the third — so arrivals come out downstairs, and people who wait upstairs by the check-in desks are in the wrong place. Domestic and international flights exit through different halls, so agree on a specific meeting point in advance.

Taxis

Order a car only once the luggage is in hand. A driver waiting in the transit zone starts paying 2,000 ₽ per half hour after minute fifteen, and that lands on your fare. Yandex Go is the airport's official partner, with desks in the baggage reclaim areas around the clock. Ignore anyone offering a cheap ride at the exit.

Photo: Todestoast / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0