Airports still counting the cost of winter of discontent

• "It's speculation and we are not providing any further comment" -

BAA spokeswoman on reports winter disruption will cost it 40m

Thousands of passengers spent nights on terminal floors as the wintery weather brought travel chaos in the run up to Christmas, with buses and trains laid on to bring stranded Scots home from London's snowbound Heathrow airport.

BAA and its investors are understood to be expecting a hit to trading that will be at least as big as that caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

Six days were lost in the spring when European airspace was closed due to the cloud, costing some 40m. The operator will have lost landing fees from airlines as flights were grounded but it could also have lost income from shops at its airports after many travellers were advised to stay at home.

But a BAA spokeswoman yesterday played down fears the bill for the snow-induced travel chaos will top the 40m mark. "It's speculation and we are not providing any further comment," she said.

Reports of the estimated costs emerged just a week after the company's chief executive, Colin Matthews, said he would forgo his 2010 bonus to help re-build confidence in Heathrow airport following its closure due to snow, which brought misery to thousands of travellers in the run-up to Christmas.

Matthews, who received a bonus of 944,000 in 2009, made the announcement as he revealed that 10m would be invested in extra snow-clearing equipment for the airport.

BAA has launched an investigation into why the winter weather brought the world's busiest airport to a halt while other airports remained open.

The report is expected to be released in March and the company said it would not be "providing a running commentary" while the probe was under way.

The review is being led by Professor David Begg, one of BAA's non-executive directors and chairman of the British Chambers of Commerce's infrastructure commission.Other members of the inquiry panel include four former airport chief executives from Canada, Europe and the United States.

An Edinburgh airport spokesman said that figures would be available later this week for the disruption caused by the snow.

A spokeswoman for Glasgow airport added: "We don't have a figure yet - we're still counting the cost."

BAA is owned by a consortium led by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial and including a Canadian pension fund and GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund.

Earlier this week, the company said its owners supported its moves to get delayed passengers booked on to new flights and that it was confident of the continuing backing of its 400 debt holders.

BAA has spent the past 18 months converting much of its short-term debt into 6.6 billion of longer-term bonds.

Some 3bn has been raised in the past year through a mixture of bank debt and investment-grade and high-yield bonds.

The move into longer-term debt means that many bond holders will be less concerned about short-term disruption to BAA's airports.

On the other side of the Atlantic, analysts estimate that this week's blizzards on the east coast of the US could cost airlines about $100 million (64m).

Airports in Boston, New York and Philadelphia were closed for much of Monday because of heavy snowfall.