British airports operator BAA today said the cost of recruiting 1,000 extra security staff since the September 11th terror attacks had dented profits.
Unveiling first-quarter figures for the three months to June 30th, BAA reported a 5.6 per cent decline in operating profits at its British businesses to £136 million sterling.
But BAA sounded an optimistic note on its outlook, saying it had started to see an improvement in passenger growth and revenues towards the end of the three-month period.
BAA chief executive Mr Mike Clasper said: "We are now almost at the end of the huge investment in security-related recruitment and expenditure, which followed the tragedy of September 11, and we are on course to meet our targets for the year".
BAA operates seven major British airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
The group said passenger numbers using its British airports grew 2.2 per cent to £32.7 million during the quarter to June 30th, with a decline of 2.2 per cent at Heathrow offset by strong growth at Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Southampton.
It said the figures represented the impact of global economic weakness, the Iraq war and the SARS epidemic with the events having the most impact on Heathrow.
> PA