BAA spends £39m on security and improvements

BAA spent an extra £39 million on security and making improvements to its seven UK airports between January and October, new figures have shown.

A closer look at the figures show that additional security measures cost BAA £27 million, while "basic" improvements cost £12 million.

The programme of improvements was implemented with the objective of "improving passenger experience by reducing queues and improving facilities and cleanliness", BAA stated.

BAA published the costs at the same time as announcing that operating profits were down 18.1 per cent to £544 million in the nine months ending September 30th.

According to figures released this week, BAA's seven hubs, which include Gatwick Airport and Heathrow Airport, handled 13.2 million passengers in October, a rise of 3.5 per cent on the same month in 2006.

All BAA airports, with the exception of Glasgow, reported increases last month.

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