Exclusive:Edinburgh Airport passengers hit with 'worrying' parking prices lottery due to 'AI trial'

Passengers at Scotland’s busiest airport are facing a lottery over how much they are charged for parking due to an artificial intelligence experiment, The Scotsman has learned.

Edinburgh Airport has admitted that people booking parking online are randomly being given different price quotes because some are set by AI.

It said: “Some car parking searches return prices set by our own team and some have pricing set by the AI trial.”

Passengers are being "randomly" quoted different prices for parking at Edinburgh Airport because of an AI trial | Lisa Ferguson/The Scotsman

The Scottish Passenger Agents Association (SPAA), which represents the travel industry, expressed alarm at the revelation.

The body said: “Such trials should be conducted in controlled, ‘lab’ conditions rather than on the travelling public.” The Scottish Conservatives described the situation as “worrying” and said the airport must ensure drivers were treated “fairly and equally”. The anomaly came to light after one man was quoted £69.99 for FastPark valet parking between noon on September 1 and 10pm on September 3, but his wife was quoted £75.99 for the same period.

The man’s quote showed a rate of £23.33 per day, while his wife’s quote had a rate of £25.33 a day.

He said he had attributed the difference to his wife using an iPhone to get the quote while he had used an Android device. However, the airport insisted the differential was due to its AI trial and not the type of device or browser used, or their location.

The passenger said: "My wife, an iPhone user, and I, an Android user, have just noticed that Edinburgh Airport seems to be charging iPhone users more for car parking than Android users.

“I discovered that when my wife went to book parking that I had suggested, it turned out to be more expensive. I searched again and got the lower original price on my Android device.

“My Android device got the lower pricing on each of three separate occasions, while my wife's iPhone got the higher pricing twice and my work iPhone got it once.

“It looks awfully like this is a model parameter rather than a random result.”

A check by The Scotsman on Thursday night produced different quotes for a variety of airport-controlled car parks, obtained on a laptop and tablet computer. These included the price of parking at the mid stay car park between 6am on Saturday and 9pm on Monday varying between £39.99 and £47.99.

The price of two weeks in the airport’s long stay car park, from September 21 to October 5, ranged from £66.99 to £84.99.

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An SPAA spokesperson said: “The use of AI in travel is already a widely-used tool for all types of businesses. The SPAA is always in favour of trialling new systems and technologies, including the use of AI, to enhance customer experiences and optimise services.

“However, we believe that such trials should be conducted in controlled, ‘lab’ conditions rather than on the travelling public.

“Travellers expect consistency, fairness, and transparency when it comes to pricing, especially when planning their journeys. We urge all parties involved to ensure that any new technology trials do not come at the expense of the best service and best value that customers rightly expect.”

Scottish Conservatives transport spokesperson Graham Simpson said: “This may be a trial, but it’s worrying that people could be getting charged different amounts for exactly the same parking.

“Edinburgh Airport must ensure that everyone using the airport car parks is treated fairly and equally.” The airport said it was conducting a trial using AI to look at pricing, which selected people at random for lower/higher prices which closely matched those set by airport staff.

Its spokesman said: “Like many businesses, we have been trialling different online pricing strategies, including the use of artificial intelligence.

“During testing. this means some car parking searches return prices set by our own team and some have pricing set by the AI trial, such as in this case. The findings of our testing will be used to evaluate the AI trial and decide whether this is something we decide to adopt.”