Airport boss defends £453m car parking income

The boss of Manchester Airport has defended car parking charges there, arguing they are "competitive".

Chris Woodroofe was responding to a customer who asked how the airport can justify more than £150 charge for parking for two weeks.

The managing director said the cost was "exactly the same sort of charge" as parking in a town centre for the day, but some customers have said they felt the chanrges were unreasonable.

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) - which also includes London Stansted and East Midlands Airports - recently recorded it had made £453m from parking, about a third of its income.

Woodroofe told BBC North West Tonight: "If you go into the town centre and look to park for a day in the town centre and do that comparison with the £150 for two weeks, it's exactly the same sort of charge."

He said the airport was competing with Uber and taxi firms as well as other parking firms.

"The car parking world is a competitive one. We are not the only suppliers of car parking in this market place. There are several other competitors, and so it operates a competitive market place."

However, he said comparing the cost of parking in a town centre for a day "isn't really like-for-like".

Airport customer Ray McGee told the BBC: "Nobody would realistically be parking their car in a city centre continuously for two weeks, so I don't think that comparison demonstrates the airport charge is reasonable or competitive".

Woodroofe said the income generated from parking goes into both the running of the airport and investment.

Woodroofe added: "One of the things we'll look to invest in in the future will be another big multi-storey car park because there is really high demand for that car parking."

When asked if that will bring prices down, he said: "We're always going to operate in a world where we are pricing our car parking in a competitive marketplace."

He added the drop off charges at Manchester Airport - which is £5.50 for five minutes - was "the lowest charge of any of the big airports across the UK".

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.