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BA's passenger numbers dive
Robert Lea3 Jul 2008
First class and business passenger numbers dived by more than 3% at British Airways last month, piling the pressure on the flag-carrier whose fuel bill is soaring, up by more than a third in the last two months.
Just weeks after BA announced record profits of £883 million for 2007-8, the picture is worsening for the airline, which many analysts now expect to make just a fraction of those earnings in the current year.
Traffic statistics for June show that premium paying passengers - those at the front of the aircraft who make up the vast majority of BA's profits - fell by 3.1%. In economy, numbers fell 3.8%.
All markets are struggling. In the UK and Europe, where BA carries nearly two-thirds of its passengers, numbers fell by 2%.
On transatlantic routes, historically the cash cow for BA, numbers were down 4.3%.
Worse, on Middle East and Africa routes, identified as one of the big growth segments for BA, passengers numbers crashed 7.6%.
