Heathrow has announced it is to cut 200 jobs despite turning a profit.

The news comes as the airport reached a pre-tax gain of £426 million during 2013, the first time it has been in the black since 2006. This is compared to the loss of £33 million recorded in 2012 and was mainly achieved thanks to the sale of Stansted in February last year.

Officials have blamed the Civil Aviation Authority's 'draconian' decision that they must reduce the charges for airlines as of April. The prices are likely to fall by 1.5 per cent below the rate of inflation each year until 2019.

Chief executive Colin Matthews commented: "We have been reducing the costs and we need to do so significantly now to get in line with the amount of money we are allowed to make from airlines."

Front-line positions are exempt from the redundancies, which will fall across its head office structure. The airport currently employs 7,000 staff members, with only 1,000 of these at risk of losing their jobs.