The bill for a £1 billion investment project at Gatwick Airport will ultimately fall on passengers, the Airline Operators Committee (AOC) has warned.
Work scheduled for the site includes the construction of a brand new £200 million aircraft pier in the North Terminal, as well as upgrades to various other facilities.
But according to the AOC – whose member carriers include the likes of BA, easyJet and Ryanair – the cost cannot be justified and the plans should be scrapped.
In a letter to BAA, easyJet accused the airport regulator of embarking on an "unproven" business case with an "extraordinarily high" price tag.
The no-frills airline said that the proposed development amounted to little more than "tinkering at the edges," and was ill suited to the current economic climate.
But BAA defended its expansion plans, telling ABTN that all affected airlines had been involved in the negotiation process and knew about the cost for some time.
"The agreement is between us and the airlines," a spokesperson for the regulator said. "How the airlines then pass that on to their passengers is a question for them."
Gatwick Airport suffered a 12 per cent drop in passengers numbers this year, reflecting a wider downturn in the industry brought about by the recession.
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