Manchester Airport is the UK busiest Airport outside of London, in terms of passengers, with over 21 million people passing through the airport in 2008. It came as no surprise therefore to see they had made a move into the off-site Manchester Airport parking arena with the introduction of JetParks.
Although Manchester Airport provided parking, including Long Stay, Short Stay and Valet, on-site, within the warm confines of the Airport perimeters, they had not yet ventured out in to the cold where the off-site Airport Parking companies gather. However, with the increase number of short haul and budget flights tempting people into long weekend breaks, the amount of people looking to park up and fly out has risen dramatically over the years.
The sheer number of companies outside of the Airports boundaries is astonishing and testament to our ever increasing dependency on Air travel, whether this is internally within the UK, Long haul or short breaks. Gone are the days when you would jump in a taxi to the airport, and why should you, when you can park up for as little as £2 a day and get shuttled to the Terminal doors.
A quick search on Google Maps for Manchester Airport parking returns no fewer 50 airport parking options within a 5 mile radius, now granted, some of these are Hotels offering overnight stay and car parking, however, that is a different article altogether. The first off-site parking at Manchester Airport were started by the owners of land surrounding the airports, as the demand for parking grew within the official parking lots, space became scarce and prices driven up accordingly, so there was a market for an alternative option, and so unofficial car parks were opened by these land owners.
It is fair to say that these spaces were very basic and would resemble more the temporary car parks around football matches (I tend to pay a few quid to a Manc Scally not to rip the wing mirrors off) than the highly regulated industry it has evolved into, very much a pay at the gate scenario. However, things really began to take off, if you'll excuse the pun, in line with people embracing the internet and online bookings.
All of a sudden the car parks had a medium than fitted perfectly with their product, they were selling space and where better to vend but in cyberspace. The ease at which they could be booked and the price in comparison to a taxi or convenience in comparison to the bus or train appealed greatly to the discerning traveller and business person alike. Like the budget airlines that popped up, so too did the car parking companies become brand names, with companies such as Parking 4 Less and Parking Essentials becoming a natural add on to the cost of the flight.
However, JetParks is the first step by Manchester Airport to offer the same budget service as these established brands, and although there will still be a demand for the onsite Manchester Airport Parking, I know a lot of people like myself would much prefer the cost of parking for a few days to be considerably less than the cost of the flight.
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