A holidaymaker was told she must pay £20 to reclaim the jacket she left in a passenger lounge at Manchester Airport.

The teacher from Stockport branded the fee an 'extortionate amount of money' and said she wanted to speak out to publicise the little-known charges.

Lost property is managed on behalf of the airport by Excess Baggage Group Ltd, who insist the fee has 'remained unchanged since 2001' and is 'standard' across most UK airports.

Emails sent to the woman from the company initially refer to a £20 'retrieval fee', but it's described as a 'storage fee' in subsequent correspondence.

And then, despite being told her jacket had been found, she said it wasn't there when she went to collect it after landing back at the airport.

Excess Baggage Group set the charges, but they are agreed by airport bosses as part of the company's operation agreement.

The woman, who has asked not to be named, jetted away with her husband and a friend for a six-day trip to Holland over half-term. They had a drink and a meal in the 1903 Lounge at Terminal 3 before the flight on May 27.

The 1903 lounge in Terminal 3

The leather-effect, bomber-style John Rocha jacket was a gift from her husband, but she left it on an armchair.

"It was only when I was boarding the plane that I realised," she said.

"I tried ringing the airport at once but there were so many automated options, I did not get through, so I emailed them as soon as I could."

She described the jacket to Excess Baggage and said she would be flying back to Manchester on the Sunday - June 2.

Three days later she got the 'great news' in an email that her jacket 'had just come in' and was available for collection with 'a retrieval fee of £20'.

"I'm so happy my jacket has made the long journey back to the check in desk," she replied in a scathing email.

"Security must be exhausted after carrying it around for four days!

The holidaymaker has hit out over the 'extortionate' charges

"Could you please give me a breakdown of how such a large amount of money has been accrued by such a small jacket? Am I paying for the security person who has guarded it so closely for the last four days?"

She was then told it was a 'storage fee' - and again replied to protest against the 'extortionate charge'.

"Lost property goes downstairs to T3 and once it is paired up with a description, it goes upstairs to await collection," she told the M.E.N.

"But there is a £20 charge, which I think is ridiculously excessive. I went to collect it after I landed and it took them 45 minutes for them to discover that they had not got it or could not find it, or had no idea where it was. My issue really is with the charge.

"What if something isn't worth that much in the first place?

"What do they do with the items not collected? Sell them?

"With the parking and drop-off charges at the airport, it could cost a lot of money just to get something you own back."

Children's teddy bears or toys are returned free of charge.

Excess Baggage has now confirmed to the M.E.N. her jacket has been found and would be mailed to her free of charge.

In a statement, Excess Baggage Group Ltd said: "Lost property charges are approved by Manchester Airport Group and are standard across most major UK airports and rail stations.

"These charges which are set by the Association of Train Operating Companies, have remained unchanged since 2001. The policy of charging for lost property service is standard on an international basis, and is levied on a 'user pays' basis, otherwise the travelling public in general would be forced to pay for the forgetfulness of the few.

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"In relation to the misidentification of the item involved, it is sometimes difficult to make exact matches of garments based on a verbal description. When the passenger came to retrieve the garment that we had in our possession, it was confirmed that it was not in fact her item.

"We depend on a variety of parties across the airport to deliver items of lost property to us. Sometimes this does take time, and this process is beyond our control. Turning to the lack of response, unfortunately the staff member involved was on leave due to Eid, and failed to communicate the whole situation to other staff members. We will be apologising to the passenger for this unsatisfactory chain of events.

"We are pleased to confirm that the item has now been successfully identified and that the garment will be returned to her, free of charge, as a gesture of goodwill."

A Manchester Airport spokesman said: "Excess Baggage set the charges, but we do agree them as part of them operating out of the airport."