A full inquiry into airport closures and disruption is already underway by BAA's new non-executive director Sir David Begg. His report is not expected until the end of March and one of BAA's biggest customers, Virgin Atlantic, will not now be paying any airport fees before then, an amount said to be less than £10m.

Sir Richard Branson's airline blames the slow reaction of BAA to severe weather conditions, which cost aviation millions of pounds, and disrupted the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers last month.

British Airways said the part-closure of UK airports cost it in excess of £50m. BAA said it would work with airlines during the Begg enquiry and that Heathrow's conditions during the snow did not provide any basis to withhold airport charges.

Theoretically BAA could impound Virgin Atlantic planes for non-payment of fees, though that is unlikely.

Joe Lynam, BBC News

Vocabulary

             inquiry :       official investigation

disruption :      prevented from proceeding or continuing normally

is already underway:          has begun

non-executive director   :      a member of a company's management who is not actually employed by the company

reaction :  response

aviation:    here, the industries and companies which run airlines and airports

in excess of  :      more than

basis :     particular reason

theoretically   :  it is possible that

impound       :legally take hold of