A row has broken out between Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Aer Rianta over who should pay for additional security measures introduced in the aftermath of September 11th.

Aer Lingus - in a submission to the Commission for Aviation Regulation - claims Aer Rianta has been imposing "excessive charges" for security which "bear no relation to cost".

Aer Lingus has accused the airports company of generating revenue of €57 million at Dublin airport alone from various security charges.

However Aer Rianta has rejected this claim and suggests the figure is nearer to €28 million.

The dispute over security is included a series of submissions made to the Commission in recent weeks.

The Commission is expected to shortly review the level of aiport charges levied by Aer Rianta.

Before the review begins, the airlines and other interested parties have made their submissions.

Most of them are highly critical of Aer Rianta with Ryanair accusing the company of "gold plating" at Dublin and Cork airports, while cargo businesses complain that Aer Rianta's charges have rocketed in the last two years.

The group representing the cargo businesses - the Irish Association of International Express Carriers - says in its submission that in January 2002 the cost of parking freight aircraft increased by almost 600 per cent for freight airlines using Aer Rianta's airports and the cost of landing freight aircraft rose by 31 per cent.

However, Aer Rianta counters that cargo planes spend a longer time on "stand" at the airport and consequently get charged more.

While not critical of Aer Rianta, the aircraft manufacturer Airbus complains that off-peak landing and take-off charges have been calculated incorrectly and discriminate against its A320 family.

Aer Rianta in its submission supports a change in this area.

Aer Lingus claims Aer Rianta, apart from charging a standard security charge, has also been imposing "additional charges for other passenger related security services" such as passenger profiling and secondary searches in the departure gates. Aer Arann also raises the issue of security charges in its brief submission.

Aer Rianta claims these secondary charges relate to baggage screening and secondary searches and ultimately are the responsibility of the airlines. Consequently it has started invoicing airlines for these costs.

It claims it was asked to put in place these measures after September 11th and the airlines realised then they would have to bear the costs.

In its submission,Ryanair also raises the security issue. "Following the original determination (by the Commission) Aer Rianta restructured its charges to massively inflate security fees and aircraft parking charges in order to make it impossible for potential users of the Pier D to negotiate lower charges for the use of a lower cost facility".

Its submission adds: "Aer Rianta has been introducing new fees ever since the original determination came into effect.

"These include new security fees, despite the fact that the determination does not permit Aer Rianta to pass through any new security costs".

Ryanair also accuses the airports company of doubling staff parking charges and introducting other "miscellanous fees and charges".

For its part Aer Rianta rejects the Ryanair suggestion that airlines are being "double charged" for security measures."

Ryanair has suggested that there is a double bill for these services as they clearly fall under airport charges.

This is incorrect, as in the case of hold baggage screening and secondary searches, the costs of these activities are excluded from the Aer Rianta cost base as they are the responsibility the airlines. This is recognised by the control authorities".