Heathrow’s revenue has soared in the airport’s first year under foreign ownership but investment has dropped, despite airline and passenger concern over the poor state of its terminals.

Capital expenditure at Heathrow was £252 million in the year since Ferrovial, the Spanish construction company, bought the airport’s parent, BAA. This is 15 per cent lower than the £298 million BAA spent in its last year as an independent company. The drop in spending on Heathrow’s infrastructure, revealed in group figures released by Ferrovial, has raised concerns about how the Spanish company is managing its £10.3 billion airport division.

One of the concerns raised when Ferrovial acquired BAA last July was that it would take profits but not invest in one of Britain’s most important strategic assets. Sir Michael Bishop, chairman of bmi, said: “Ferrovial has come into this infrastructure asset thinking they are immune to competition but their customers are not. BAA and Ferrovial have to be encouraged to do more.”

The decline in Heathrow’s investment comes as the airport, the world’s busiest international hub, is under fire over the poor state of terminals and long queues at check-in and security. Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, last week said that Heathrow shamed the capital. Kitty Ussher, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, has also claimed that Heathrow is discouraging business executives from travelling to the UK.

The Competition Commission is expected to announce this week that it will look at breaking BAA’s monopoly of London airports, amid concern that lack of competition is putting off investment in Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. A spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said: “It is now more essential than ever that the Competition Commission look at the current system of airport ownership and ask themselves how it can be done better – because it can be done so much better.”

In the year since Ferrovial bought BAA, revenue from Heathrow has grown to £1.232 billion from £1.077 billion, according to the Spanish company’s accounts. It is unclear how much profit Ferrovial has made from Heathrow compared with the previous management, as it reports using a different method. The capital expenditure figures do not include £800 million spent this year on Terminal 5.

Last year BAA spent £977 million, but expenditure was expected to fall as the terminal nears completion.

BAA said: “It is not the case that we are taking money out of Heathrow. The capital expenditure figures don’t take account, for example, of the extra £20 million we have put into security to reduce queues.”

According to data from FGP Topco, the vehicle used by Ferrovial to acquire BAA, capital expenditure including Terminal 5 costs during the first six months of Ferrovial’s ownership fell 20 per cent to £508 million.

The FGP accounts also show that airline charges for each passenger travelling through the airport rose 7.5 per cent to £304 million. Retail contributed £124 million and the Heathrow Express train service £38 million.

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