Aer Rianta will tell airlines this morning that airport charges at Dublin need to rise from €5 to €5.45 per passenger.

Aer Rianta management will argue that the company needs to draw significant revenue from the airport in 2004 and it will reach the "cap" of €5.45 imposed by the airport regulator Mr William Prasifka. The charges are due to apply from January.

Airlines are expected to react angrily to the news, with Ryanair likely to be the most vocal in its opposition. Among the airlines expected to attend the meeting with Aer Rianta are Aer Lingus, Ryanair, Aer Arann and British Midland.

Yesterday Ryanair said Aer Rianta had already put up the cost of 44 "miscellaneous charges". These are charges for a range of services at Dublin Airport, including fire brigade call-outs, ID cards, commercial photography and vehicle permits.

Ryanair's head of communications, Mr Paul Fitzsimmons, said: "The Aer Rianta monopoly is strangling Irish tourism by increasing costs to the airlines and our customers. They are pressing ahead with a crazy raft of cost hikes including an unbelievable 66 per cent increase for an ID card and 63 per cent increase for a technical call-out".

However, Aer Rianta said the increases outlined by Ryanair were published in April and were not new.

"There were increases for some miscellaneous services but that is because they were not being recovered at cost for many years," said a spokesman.

He said the airlines were given a booklet about the new miscellaneous charges in April. In relation to 2004, he said the increases were in line with inflation.

A few weeks ago, the airport regulator Mr Prasifka issued an annual review that allowed Aer Rianta to charge up to €5.45 per passenger at Dublin Airport.