RYANAIR today accused oil giant BP of profiteering and abuse of a monopoly over a 50% rise in fuel delivery charges at Prestwick Airport.

The budget airline said it was referring BP to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) over the "unjustified" increases.

Ryanair called on the OFT to investigate BP's attempts to impose increases of more than 50% on the delivery cost of aviation fuel at Prestwick and Belfast City airports when inflation was running at 5%.

Air BP has a monopoly on fuel at both airports.

Ryanair said it wrote to Air BP requesting an explanation for "these rapacious increases" but it refused to provide any valid justification, claiming the increases were due to rising oil costs.

Ryanair said it called on the OFT to take immediate action against what it said was profiteering and abuse of monopoly.

Jim Callaghan, Ryanair's director of legal and regulatory affairs, said: "This is the kind of blatant abuse of a monopoly position that the OFT was established to deal with.

"Air BP has a complete monopoly on the supply of aviation fuel at these airports and is abusing this position to unilaterally impose 50% cost increases for delivery of aviation fuel.

"This abuse comes at a time when BP and the other oil majors are making record billion-pound profits at the expense of the aviation industry, which is in crisis.

"Despite repeated requests, Air BP has failed to provide any valid justification for these inflation-busting rises."

Mr Callaghan said that of the 150 airports at which Ryanair operated, Belfast City and Prestwick were the only two where Air BP had a monopoly.

He called on the OFT to take action against Air BP to prevent it imposing the increases.

He said Belfast City Airport had made it known to the airlines that if Air BP and Ryanair are unable to agree on pricing, it would be looking at introducing alternative suppliers.6/10/08