Airport terror plot has cost BA £100m

This summer's huge terrorism alert cost British Airways £100million, the company has claimed.

The flag-carrier said its profits had been halved to £134 million largely because of the near-closure of London's airports in August and the following weeks of chaos.

The Government dramatically intervened after it received warning that terrorists were planning to take bombs in liquid form on board planes. It led to unprecedented disruption at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted with thousands of flights cancelled or heavily delayed.

The airline said the clampdown and the baggage restrictions cost the airline an average of nearly £15 million a week. In total it lost revenues of £100 million over the seven weeks to the end of September.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh said the airline was still carrying the cost and the final bill was likely to be much higher.

Other factors included a loss on the sale of its under-performing BA Connect short-haul domestic operation-But the pressure on profits is unlikely to see BA reduce its £70 long-haul fuel surcharges anytime soon, despite a 25 per cent fall in the price of oil since the summer.

"We are keeping the situation under review" said Walsh. "While the spot (on the day) price of oil is below $60 a barrel, the forward market is suggesting the price will remain at $65 a barrel this winter."

BA previously said it would reduce the surcharges if the price of oil came down, and it has already admitted that its fuel bill for this year will be around £100 million lower than it feared at the start of 2006.

The fuel surcharge is at the centre of an international price-fixing investigation in which BA and a number of other major airlines have been accused of acting as a cartel to keep prices high and profits up. Two BA executives quit the airline last month as a result of the probes.