Edinburgh Airport has raised the charge for drivers dropping off or picking up passengers to £8.50, a 42 per cent increase from the previous £6 fee that took effect today. The airport is now among the most expensive in the UK for this kind of charge, alongside Bristol and behind London Gatwick and London Stansted, where the fee is £10.

For electric vehicle owners, the increase is even sharper, because a previous half-price concession has been dropped, pushing the rise to 183 per cent. The move comes as the airport says it is trying to cope with an extra £8 million business rates bill imposed on the terminal, while the free drop-off and pick-up area, where passengers can park for up to 30 minutes without charge, remains open and has more spaces added.

Gordon Dewar said the airport had not planned to raise fees this year, but said it had no choice but to pass part of the cost on to passengers. He said the new business rates burden had an immediate and negative impact on the airport and could be measured in practical terms as the equivalent of around 200 jobs, two aircraft stands or five new security lanes. The airport also said the tram from the city centre to the airport station costs £7.90, compared with £2.40, adding another option for travellers faced with the higher road charge.

Drop-off fees were first introduced after two terrorists tried to drive a Jeep laden with propane gas cylinders and petrol cans through the terminal doors and into the departure area at Glasgow in June 2007. In the years that followed, airport forecourts across the UK were reconfigured to guard against a copycat attack, and Birmingham airport began charging motorists to help defray the cost. Edinburgh Airport is now facing a different pressure: whether passengers will accept paying more at the kerb because the airport says it cannot absorb the rates bill itself.