LORRIES taking air freight from Manchester International Airport to London Heathrow may have to pay a tariff in future.
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The use of road transport means less aircraft and lost landing fees for Manchester.
"We have got to try to get an income from lorry traffic comparable to the income we would have had from aircraft," Mr Gordon Sweetapple, airport director, said.
"We feel that as we lose Ilanding fees and handling fees we are entitled to impose a surcharge, since the lorries are using the airport," he said.
Mr Sweetapple estimated MIA lost as much as £100,000 per year through road freighting, although reduced operating expenses compensated for part of that figure. He had not calculated any figures for the tariff.
It is understood that British Airways have been told the tariff was aimed primarily at other airlines and agents who treated the airport as a warehouse.
Newly released figures show that air freight at WA dropped by 19 per cent to 37,360 tonnes in 1975.