BP, one of the oil giants accused of ripping off customers at the petrol pumps, has now been accused of hiking up prices for airlines as well.

Ryanair today called on the Office of Fair Trading to investigate its claims the oil supermajor's aviation arm AirBP has been trying to force through huge price rises at British airports where it enjoys a monopoly.

The budget carrier is accusing AirBP of 50% price rises on kerosene at Glasgow's Prestwick airport and at Belfast City.

Ryanair says AirBP's demands come as BP is making billions of dollars in profits from the oil boom, but also at a time when the global price of oil is coming down.

Jim Callaghan, Ryanair's legal director said: "AirBP has a complete monopoly on the supply of aviation fuel at these airports and is abusing this position to unilaterally impose over 50% cost increases more than 10 times the rate of inflation for the 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 currently in crisis.

"At a time of recession, when consumer confidence is collapsing, this kind of blatant abuse by a massively profitable oil company cannot be accepted."