The world’s most liveable city is giving people another reason to prefer Melbourne over Sydney with the city’s airport announcing it will cut the drive-up parking rates at the terminal by up to 20% from this Thursday.

The cost of parking for one hour in the T1-4 will fall by 20% to $12, and to $24 for up to three hours, down from $29.

The 3-4 hour rate will be $34 from March 1, down $5 and 4-6 hours drops by the same amount to $44, while the one day parking rate falls $8 to $51.

By comparison, Sydney airport’s charges $19 per hour and $36.50 for three hours, and then $61 for 3-24.

Each day costs an additional $61 in Sydney. In Melbourne it’s $19 per additional day after two days.

Last year, the ACCC found that Sydney Airport’s profit margin on car parking increased 1.5 percentage points to 73.1%, well ahead of Melbourne’s 59% margin.

Melbourne Airport was slightly ahead of Sydney in terms of total revenue from parking at $135.3 million compared to $133.8 million.

The ACCC found that Sydney made $6138 per parking space, nearly double the Melbourne figure of $3084.

Melbourne Airport’s Chief of Parking and Ground Access, Lorie Argus, said the price drops followed customer research commissioned by the airport late last year.

“We asked our customers what they wanted to see more of and whilst they are happy with the great rates on offer in the Long Term Car Park, the general feedback was that they’d like us to look at drive-up prices in the ‘at terminal’ car parks. Customers have told us what they want and we have listened by reducing terminal parking prices by up to 20%,” she said.

Last November, Melbourne Airport introduced a “value car park” connected by free shuttle bus to the terminals, costing $10 for up to 4 hours.

Around 120,000 vehicles drive through the airport daily and offers 24,000 public car parking spaces — around 10,000 more than Sydney.

Online bookings also offer increased flexibility and discounts and those prices are also being reduced in Melbourne from March 1.

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