Airport closures due to the snow and ice chaos before Christmas will cost Heathrow owner BAA £24 million.
The figure emerged as the company revealed that passenger numbers dropped by almost 11% in December to 7.2 million year on year across its UK airports.
Passengers using Heathrow dropped by 9.5%, with Edinburgh numbers down by 18.4% and Southampton 22% due to the bad weather.
BAA lost £19 million at Heathrow, £1 million at Stansted and £4 million across the group’s four other UK airports of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Southampton.
“A significant proportion (approximately 40% at Heathrow) of the reduction in profit resulted from higher operating expenses which, other than the extra costs of operating in unusually severe winter weather, reflected in particular the costs of supporting passengers in the difficult circumstances,” BAA said.
“These costs included the provision of significant additional personnel and other resources to assist passengers in our airport terminals as well as the cost of providing hotel accommodation, catering and other care for substantial numbers of stranded passengers.”
The Spanish owned company handled total of 103.9 million passengers in 2010, a drop of 2.8% on 2009.
The figures were released as airlines warned that they would either withhold airport charges or seek compensation from BAA for the closure of Heathrow.
Chief executive Colin Matthews said: “The coldest December on record closed airports around the world but we must carefully examine the snow plan agreed with airlines earlier in the year and strengthen it to protect against such unprecedented weather.
“We are sorry for the flights that had to be cancelled as a result of the snow. The cost of any disruption to BAA’s airports is significant and a strong financial incentive for us to continue to make Heathrow more resilient.
“There were many challenges in 2010, ranging from poor weather and security threats through to industrial action and the cloud of volcanic ash.
“But we have continued our £1 billion-a-year investment programme and are encouraged by Heathrow’s underlying positive performance during challenging economic times.
“Heathrow has improved considerably in recent years, and we are determined to put December behind us and win back confidence by improving customer service, upgrading our terminals and doing whatever it takes to improve people’s journeys.”
The year was marked by a series of “exceptional events,” the company added. “Apart from severe weather late in the year, there were the effects of two extended periods of BA strikes and the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.
“Taken together these events are estimated to have caused the loss of 3.6 million passengers at BAA’s UK airports. In their absence, it is estimated that instead of an actual drop of 2.8% in passenger volumes there would have been a 0.6% increase.”
The financial results for BAA (SP), the owner of Heathrow and Stansted, will be published on February 22.