.... and absolutely nothing to do with the airport being under new management.
Correct, absolutely nothing to do with that as the Managers are all the same people. Actually the out of hours fee was dreamt up many many years ago long before this lot took over. In fact I do not think they have put the fee up at all in ages.
When I started in 19 'frozen over' it was down to the a/g operator at the time to decide if he was going to stay open for a late movement. Then he got to pocket the fee all for himself in cash off of the pilot. (not that it was £250 in those days). It made it more attractive to stay fro some strange reason.
