Liverpool John Lennon Airport has faced criticism for raising the rate of a drop off car park to £25 an hour.

The fee was described as ‘ridiculous’ on social media, but bosses have defended the move as a way to make extra money to make up for the hammering taken by the aviation industry due to the coronavirus outbreak.

It also aims to discourage people from hanging around in the Express Drop Off zone for too long and taking up space. The new charges mean drivers will have to pay £4 for up to 10 minutes in the zone, £10 for up to 20 minutes before having to pay £25 for up to an hour.

The charge goes up to £50 for a 24 hour stay, with a further £50 charged for every additional 24 hours after that, which many people thought was a tad too steep. When asked to explain the decision, a spokesman for the airport told the Liverpool Echo: ‘Firstly they have been increased to encourage more drivers to use this facility for its intended purpose, which is to simply drop/pick up and go within 10 minutes.

‘There is a limited amount of space available and to date, we still see a number of drivers parking here for longer, increasing the numbers of vehicles present at any one time and causing congestion and delay for all users. Almost 80% of drivers are in and out within 10 minutes so for the vast majority they will notice an increase from £3 to £4.’

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The airport has been hit badly by the coronavirus crisis and lockdown, which the spokesman admitted was also a factor in the increased charges. He said: ‘The other reason for the increase is that like many in the aviation industry, COVID-19 has had a significant impact on business, with passenger numbers currently 80-90% lower than where they should be.

‘As a consequence it has unfortunately been necessary to drive greater levels of income in certain areas including our car parks in order to try to offset this loss of business, whilst continuing to have significant levels of costs associated with maintaining airport operations.’

The spokesman pointed out that unlike many other airports, drivers can park for up to 40 minutes for free in the Drop off 2 car park – a 5-10 minute walk to the terminal – and stays of up to 30 minutes at the short stay multi-storey car park.

Stays of up to 30 minutes in the short stay multi-storey car park adjacent to the express drop off zone remain at £6, he added.

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