THE owners of Heathrow have paid the Met £26 million in a row over security costs - but that only covers about half the bill of policing Europe's busiest airport.

BAA first refused to pay any of the £48 million it cost to provide 501 officers and 174 civillian staff in the last financial year.

The airports authority has also not paid any of the £7 million bill for security at London's City Airport.

It said it wanted to wait for a government decision on airport security.

Len Duval, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), said it was "a major achievement" to recover the £26 million for Heathrow. The Met still hopes to get another £9 million of the £48 million.

Sir Ian Blair, the Met chief, said the force was did not withdraw any officers from the airports during the negotiations.

"I am sure that is not an appropriate position for the Met to take," the commissioner said.

'Fun flying'

Meanwhile it has been revealed that senior Met officers took more than 200 short-haul flights where trains would have sufficed.

Jenny Jones of the London Assembly Greens said in the last year there were 120 flights to Manchester, 33 to Liverpool, 16 to Leeds, 34 to Paris and 21 to Brussels.

"It seems to me that there's this presumption that air travel is more exiting, more fun," she told Sir Ian during the assembly's question time on Wednesday.

In the last year, the Met spent £8.2 million on air travel within the UK. The flights released 6,000 tonnes of CO2, Ms Jones said.

The commissioner replied that it seemed to be "quite a hassle to fly to Manchester rather than getting on the train from Euston". He promised: "I will do something about it."