British Airways and other airlines on Thursday called for UK competition authorities to consider breaking up ownership of two key London airports as part of an investigation into UK airports.

BA said an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation into airport ownership should be referred to the Competition Commission because of concerns about airport regulation and ownership.

The airline said the commission should consider separate ownership of Heathrow and Stansted airports.

Both airports, along with a third at Gatwick, are owned by BAA, which was bought by Spain's Ferrovial earlier this year.

"Separate ownership of London Heathrow and London Stansted would make infrastructure developments at the airports more responsive to airlines' and their customers' needs and expansion at one airport would not be held back to suit the commercial needs of a monopoly owner," BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh said in a statement.

Dublin-based Ryanair said in a statement it also wanted the OFT to recommend a break-up of the BAA in its report to the commission.

Low-cost carrier easyJet said it also supported a break-up of BAA but the priority should be stronger price regulation on airports.

Airlines were responding to an OFT investigation which was announced in June.

BAA has faced calls for its break-up for years because of its dominance of the UK airports sector. Its seven UK airports include Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, and it plans to continue growing with a new terminal at Heathrow in 2008 and a new runway at Stansted by 2013.

Airlines were highly critical of BAA after tightened security measures at London airports following a suspected bomb plot forced them to cancel hundreds of flights earlier this month.