Extortionate Parking rates at Manchester Airport

[Deleted member 26715]

My father in law & lady friend flew into Manchester airport yesterday evening, I was volunteered to collect them. They are both in their 80's & don't walk very well, so I followed the signs to the Short Stay carpark of Terminal 1. It's all quite confusing as you're driving around if you've not been for a while, you're trying to find the correct terminal, then the car park that you really don't get to see the costs of the parking before you enter the car park, but of course you can't leave until you've paid.

I arrived about 18:10 no ticket so I don't know exactly, the plane was 10 minutes late to arrive, then there was some issue with the main door so it couldn't go on a gate & they had to disembark via the rear door & be ferried to the terminal by a bus. This all resulted in us not leaving the carpark until around 19:15, approximately 1 hour 5 minutes possibly 1 hour 10 minutes, for that privilege I was charged £20, which I think is a scandalous amount, but it's like shooting fish in a barrel for them, there is no other choice.

I have no receipt, I have no times, I don't even know who I paid, if I wished to question the charge.

 

[ianrauk]

Parking at airports as you have found out is a closed shop and a complete and utter rip off. They can charge what they like and how they like. They don't care if a plane is late for what ever reason.

London Gatwick has recently just started charging passenger drop off fees of £5.00 at the termainals.

I flew from Gatwick in June. To get around this I got my partner to drop me off just outside the airport at Maccy D's and did a 5 minute walk to the terminal. Did the same for when she picked me up.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

As someone whose town and several surrounding roads are blighted by traffic for Manchester airport, my sympathy is extremely limited. The more expensive it is to drive there, the better.

 

[T4tomo]

Obviously a bit harder with octogenarians, bu you either estimate the time it take to pick up baggage and passport control, which is usually 60 mins with hold baggage and don't arrive when the plane just lands, if they need meting at arrivals.

If mobile enough to get to the 15 mins drop off places, the you wait just beyond aiport no stopping zones and steam in once you know they are walking down to that place.

 

[Beebo]

It’s a complete joke.
Drop off at £5 is crazy for just 30 seconds.

But arrangements for pick up is impossible to quantify due to a huge number of factors.
The plane can land on time but delays can be caused by waiting for a stand, passport control or baggage reclaim.
It’s almost impossible to predict when someone will actually exit the airport so you could be parked for well over an hour.

 

[wiggydiggy]

As someone whose town and several surrounding roads are blighted by traffic for Manchester airport, my sympathy is extremely limited. The more expensive it is to drive there, the better.

For the OP with 2 x 80 year olds I can understand, but for everyone else the Manchester Airport Train Station is literally in the Airport. I've used it a few times and (when the trains are running lol) it's a lot easier than driving.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

For the OP with 2 x 80 year olds I can understand, but for everyone else the Manchester Airport Train Station is literally in the Airport. I've used it a few times and (when the trains are running lol) it's a lot easier than driving.

Yeah, I get it that it's unavoidable for the OP.

Equally, I can't avoid his car and also the many thousands of others for whom it's entirely avoidable, and pricing the privilege of ruining the environment for everyone else doesn't seem unreasonable. Especially when every other aspect of their flights is subsidised by the rest of us: state funded infrastructure, tax breaks on shopping(!), tax free fuel etc etc.

 

[fossyant]

Stung for £5 drop off a couple of weeks ago. It's about £6 for 30 minutes in the short stay for T3 - but if you are 'late' it's incredibly expensive.

 

[Bazzer]

Flight trackers on your mobile help enormously. That way if you have to use a car, you can stay away from the area for as long as possible.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

As someone whose town and several surrounding roads are blighted by traffic for Manchester airport, my sympathy is extremely limited. The more expensive it is to drive there, the better.

You really do have my sympathy, even the huge carparks are a blight on the landscape & then you get manic bus drivers who know the roads & treat them like a racetrack.

Obviously a bit harder with octogenarians, bu you either estimate the time it take to pick up baggage and passport control, which is usually 60 mins with hold baggage and don't arrive when the plane just lands, if they need meting at arrivals.

If mobile enough to get to the 15 mins drop off places, the you wait just beyond aiport no stopping zones and steam in once you know they are walking down to that place.

I used to do that with my father, I would wait 'somewhere' although those spaces are now getting limited, then as they collected their bags I would swoop in & pick them up from departures, but they have thwarted that by making drop chargeable now.

For the OP with 2 x 80 year olds I can understand, but for everyone else the Manchester Airport Train Station is literally in the Airport. I've used it a few times and (when the trains are running lol) it's a lot easier than driving.

Yes I agree in someways, I used to travel from Worksop, to Sheffield then to Piccadilly then to the airport, but problem with that is I found it very stressful as you never knew if the trains would be running on time & if they weren't you risked missing your flight.

Stung for £5 drop off a couple of weeks ago. It's about £6 for 30 minutes in the short stay for T3 - but if you are 'late' it's incredibly expensive.

That has been introduced in Manchester or so I was told last night.

I currently have zero interest in flying, the wife wants to take the grand kids to Disney in Florida, we should have gone in 2020 but I can't get the enthusiasm to sit in a petri dish for 10 hours. It's bad enough being sat in a car with the father in law & friend for 1.5 hours, after they have been sat on a plane for nearly 3, I'm expecting a dose of Covid which I have so far stayed clear of.

 

[jowwy]

i think its a £1 for quick pick up and drop off at bristol airport.....but that was in 2019 last time i flew

 

[DaveReading]

Flight trackers on your mobile help enormously. That way if you have to use a car, you can stay away from the area for as long as possible.

They are useful, but only up to a point - specifically the point at which the aircraft comes to a halt at the gate.

From then on, as noted by other posters, it's very difficult to predict how long one's passenger(s) will take to get through the terminal to your chosen pick-up point.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Flight trackers on your mobile help enormously. That way if you have to use a car, you can stay away from the area for as long as possible.

They are as long as you know the airport, I haven't been to Manchester airport by car for around 5 years, maybe longer the last couple of times we went we used the park & ride.

But in this instance the plane was due to land at 18:30, it showed as landing at 18:32, but then later changed to 18:40 as explained it had to be taken somewhere so they could disembark onto the runway.

If I thought the airport was doing this to try to dissuade people from using their cars I would support it, but I don't think it's that, I think it's the airport who have a captive audience exploiting any opportunity to make money out of the captive audience.

 

[PaulSB]

It's a cost of flying. Simple. I don't see any reason to complain.

 

[Paulus]

As said above, Gatwick pick up and drop off is £5, for 10 minutes. Then £1 for every minute after that, up to a maximum of £25.
I picked MrsP up a few months back, paid on the website afterwards. I was ther precisely 1 minute and 45 seconds for my £5.
Luton airport is the same, and I believe Stansted is even more.