A TAXI firm has slammed airport bosses for increasing charges for dropping passengers off at Stansted.

The cost to take people to the express set-down zone outside the terminal has gone up 25 per cent from £4 to £5 for just 10 minutes.

Stansted bosses claim the move is to "reduce the airport's carbon footprint".

Passengers not wanting to pay the extra charge can get dropped off at one of the car parks and use the free shuttle bus service.

But Bob Smith, of Braintree private hire firm Book and Go, has accused the airport of ripping customers off.

"It's just a money-making scheme with a silly little excuse to put the price up," he said.

"No cabs are going to drop people at the shuttle. Everyone who pays a fare wants to go to the terminal.

"It seems totally nonsensical and ridiculous to do that.

"You can't ask people to do things like that when they have paid a fare to go to the airport

"If you have a six-seater with five people on board and a child and all their luggage they don't want to take all their gear and stand up on a packed bus when they are only two minutes from the airport.

"To me it's just another way of making money - that's all it is."

Mr Smith has been operating Book and Go for 32 years and does up to 80 drop-offs a year at Stansted.

He says the price hike will have to be passed on to his customers.

He added: "They could shut the whole forecourt down but you know that's not going to happen.

"People are going to use it so they have put the price up just to get money."

Stansted says the price hike is just one of a raft of measures to reduce the airport's impact on the environment and protect air quality.

Others include proposed high-speed electric car-charging points, electric coaches to London and encouraging passengers to use public transport or car share.