UK airports are behind European counterparts when it comes to offering WiFi services, with only two airports offering a completely free service.
Data gathering by Skyscanner has found Birmingham and London City are the only airports in the UK that offer unlimited free WiFi while many others offer a free service for a limited time before asking customers to cough up for more minutes.
Edinburgh offers two hours for free while Stansted and Manchester airports offer an hour free before charging GBP5.
Both Heathrow and Gatwick offer 45 minutes free before charging GBP2.95 and GBP3 respectively for an hour and more for two hours.
In comparison many of Europe’s top airports provide a free unlimited service including Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Istanbul Ataturk, Milan, Paris CDG and Orly and Rome Fiumicino.
The only European airports surveyed that have no free WiFi were Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen and Berlin Tegel. Many Spanish airports only offered 15 minutes free before charging.
The same survey found 71% of travellers think free WiFi is important mainly to pass time but also to check emails and social media.
Skyscanner’s Mary Porter said: “We know that airport WiFi is an area of increasing importance for passengers. It can be very frustrating for passengers…to find they are subject to an excessive charge. We hope that this guide will help them to know what to expect at each airport they are travelling through, but will also encourage more airports to offer a more generous WiFi allowance.”
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