Brian,
It’s the ‘disguise’ of the fee that is ‘enraging’ people.
They say it’s to reduce congestion. The simple fact is, people will likely just pay the fee and still drop off outside the door. People prefer convenience. This means the congestion issue is unlikely to be sorted.
The simple fact is, that MAN is now charging to make what should be an already provided Airport experience barely palatable.
Let’s take a couple travelling through the airport.
They pay £3 to drop off outside the door. Let’s say they need a trolley, that’s another £1.they then check in and see the security queue snaking around the terminal (which it seems to do more often than not now, 45mins wait again today. That’s another £7.50 for fast track.
On the return, the border queue is ridiculous again, that’s another £7.50 to avoid the queue, then another trolley, that’s another £1. Lastly, time to be picked up, that will be another £4.30 please.
So, all of those charges at nearly £25 just to make the Airport experience bearable. When plenty of other airports manage to provide said services for free, including ones with large low cost presence.
‘You want to complain about the queues, well, good for you, we’re still not going to fix the actual root of the problem, we will just encourage you to pay to avoid the problem’
World class aspirations? Barely breaking from its regional shackles with these types of charges and service. Shame really.