British and Irish airlines joined forces Tuesday to attack a move allowing airports operator BAA to significantly increase landing charges for planes touching down at London's main airports.
Virgin Atlantic and low-cost peers easyJet, bmi and Dublin-based Ryanair issued a joint statement demanding an overhaul of airport regulation in Britain after the country's independent aviation regulator said it had granted BAA permission to hike current charges.
The airlines said customers would end up paying, via more expensive ticket prices, while they blasted the acquisition of BAA by Spanish construction group Ferrovial in 2006, which had left the airports operator "highly indebted."
The Civil Aviation Authority said the increase in revenue from planes landing at Heathrow and Gatwick would enable BAA to offer passengers "decently modern airports." But British Airways said the CAA action was "to the detriment of customers." BAA said it was "committed to transforming Britain's airports" but indicated that it expected the CAA to have imposed even higher landing charges.
The CAA said Tuesday that authorised BAA to impose a maximum landing charge on airlines of 12.80 pounds (16.70 euros, 25.7 dollars) in 2008-2009 (April-March) for each passenger arriving at Heathrow. That represented a rise of 23.5 percent.
The aviation regulator added that BAA could further increase the landing charge by 7.5 percent above the rate of inflation in each of the following four years up until 2013.
"The CAA recognises that the resulting increases in airport charges are significant. However, these higher airport charges are essentially paying for the modernisation of Heathrow and Gatwick," the regulator said in a statement.