BA is considering pushing for compensation from British airports operator BAA for losses related to the disruption in the wake of last week's disclosure of an alleged plot to bomb passenger aircraft.
Collins Stewart estimates the cost to BA is about £50 million (€74 million) so far and increasing by about £5 million a day.
BAA and its airline customers put a weekend of bickering and finger-pointing behind them yesterday as they implemented the latest security plan in the wake of last week's alert.
The respite for BAA could be short-lived, however, once Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, and its other UK airports return to a semblance of normality.
Andrew Fitchie, aviation analyst at Collins Stewart, said: "It is quite clear that BAA was the bottleneck over recent days that caused many passengers to miss their flights. It was the first time I've ever seen the chief executive of British Airways complain publicly about BAA's performance."
But Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, could also be sabre-rattling as he seeks to improve his bargaining position in the debate over the future of BAA and its ownership of UK airports.
Ferrovial, the Spanish construction, infrastructure and services group, paid £10.1 billion to acquire BAA in June. Only days after the deal was announced, the Office of Fair Trading announced an investigation into the UK airports market that could lead to a demand for the eventual break- up of the BAA London airports monopoly. Airlines such as BA and Ryanair could decide to support a break-up as a way to drive down costs.
BAA executives believe much of the weekend mud-slinging was aimed at showing the airport group in a poor light.
The strongest criticism was reserved for BAA's chronic shortage of security staff to carry out searches of passengers.
BAA said: "None of this is anyone's fault, these are exceptional circumstances. No one foresaw this and there is only a certain amount you can do within contingency plans.
"We would have needed the new Terminal 5 [ scheduled to open in 2008] to have coped with this. And we would have needed an extra 50 per cent security staff sitting off in a building somewhere on the off-chance something might happen."
About 68 million passengers use Heathrow every year. It was designed for 40 million.
Andrew Lobbenberg, aviation analyst at ABN Amro in London, said: "I'm a bit cynical about the airlines throwing bricks at BAA. They are trying to deflect any blame for delays from themselves and position themselves politically for the row about who pays for the new security measures going forward. Ultimately, it has to be the airlines, and their customers, who will need to pay for this."
BAA and the airlines are unable to determine yet how much new security measures will cost, because the government has not made a final decision on what needs to be in place.
But under an agreement with the UK's Civil Aviation Authority, BAA can pass three-quarters of the costs of increased security on to the airlines, once they go above a £14 million threshold at Heathrow, £6 million at Gatwick and £3 million at Stansted - two other London airports.
While yesterday's relaxation of security measures will go some way to answering the concerns about future appetite for travel, the worries about extra costs will continue to weigh on airlines.
