There are proposals to cut the amount of passenger waiting time

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is raising landing charges to allow airport operator BAA to pay for upgrades to facilities and security.

But BAA will face increased penalties for poor standards of service.

Under the proposals airlines would pay �11.97 per passenger in 2008/09 to land at Heathrow and �6.07 at Gatwick.

There will be further above-inflation increases over the following five years.

The extra income for BAA will allow the company to fund the improvement of Heathrow in particular.

There are plans to further redevelop existing Terminals 1, 2, and 3 after the opening of Terminal 5 next year.

Shorter waits

But to earn its money, BAA is being told it has to improve the service it offers passengers.

The UK's Competition Commission has accused the company of not acting in passenger interests.

The CAA is reducing the target for the length of time passengers should have to queue for security from 10 to five minutes.