PASSENGERS will have to pay a £2 surcharge to fly out of Liverpool John Lennon Airport, starting early in the New Year.
Airport managers say they need to raise £5m a year to cover the cost of scanning luggage and searching people, making the airport the first in the country to introduce a turnstiles toll for safety measures.
Officials yesterday announced ticket machines and turnstiles are to be installed in the terminal building. Passengers on departure flights will have to pay £2 in pounds, Euros, or use a credit or debit card.
They will then have to insert their ticket into a turnstile after check-in, before going through to passport control.
JLA's owner Peel Holdings said its security costs have almost trebled in the last five years to an annual cost of almost £5m following the events of September 11, last year's London bombings and this summer's recent terrorist threat.
Holidaymakers said they were angry at the prospect of another airport charge. And the Air Transport Users Council (ATUC) described the plan as a "scam" on passengers who already pay airlines for security costs.
James Fremantle, ATUC industrial affairs manager, said any unavoidable charge should be included in the air fare.
He added: "This turnstile operation is not practical idea and will lead to horrendous queues."
But Neil Pakey, Peel Airports' chief executive, said the cost of the toll was a "small price to pay" for continued high security levels, and the alternative was making passengers wait 40 minutes to go on board aircraft. "Security controls that have been recently introduced are more onerous than they were even when all liquids were banned," he said.
"At present, 95% of passengers queue at security for less than five minutes and this charge will help ensure these queues are kept to a minimum."
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