Manchester Airport pick-up and drop-off charges: everything you need to know

Manchester Airport has responded to a video of a frustrated passenger in the pick-up area at Terminal 3 which went viral on social media, signalling concerns about severe congestion at the pick-up area.

Chris Barrow filmed himself live on Facebook complaining about long queues at the exit barriers, expensive parking costs and the general chaotic atmosphere.

“I have never seen anything so idiotic in my life – as you can see the rest of the people around me agree,” says Chris in the video.

“You are just money grabbers. You have no concern about passenger or customer safety. It’s just a big money grabbing operation by a load of suits that ought to be made to spend a few days here themselves.”

But according to a Manchester Airport spokesman, not everything Chris said is factually correct.

“We are aware of a video taken in the T3 multi storey in which various claims are made about the process for picking up passengers,” he told us.

“The arrangements for pick-up have not changed, and customers should use the multi-storeys or arrivals car parks for collecting passengers as normal.”

“For clarity, there is no penalty charge if you stay longer than 10 minutes when picking up. The charges for using the multi-storeys/ arrivals car park is £4 for 30 minutes, £6.50 for up to an hour or £9.50 for up to 2 hours.

“To avoid traffic building up we’d advise all customers coming to pick someone up not to stop in the running lanes and use the dedicated bays provided. This enables vehicles to flow through the car parks as smoothly as possible.

“Customers should also validate their tickets at one of the pay machines located around the car park before heading to the exit barriers.”

Manchester Airport did, however, recently introduce charges of £3 for five minutes and £4 for 10 minutes in the drop-off area.

“Manchester Airport has seen a significant increase in passenger volumes in the past five years and is heavily investing in further growth and improvements to the customer experience, most notably through our £1bn transformation programme,” said Manchester Airport’s Tricia Williams.

“This growth, coupled with imposed security restrictions on forecourt capacity and an inability to increase available space, has led to extreme congestion around the estate, especially at peak times.

“It became clear we had to take a more proactive approach to managing this, as Manchester Airport continues to grow, which is why we are introducing this forecourt management system.

“We are committed to ensuring people can still be dropped off for free at the airport, which is why we have invested in the creation of a dedicated drop-off site and free shuttle service. The location of the site has been carefully chosen due to its proximity to all terminal and the motorway network.

“We have listened carefully to issues raised by passengers since announcing our plans and have been able to respond to many of the concerns raised.”