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BAA plunged £316million into loss in the first three months of the year as passengers stopped flying and the group's interest payments on its £9.5billion debt mountain racked up.
But its chief executive indicated that the worst of the aviation recession may be coming to an end and claimed that passengers at its less congested airports are now having a happier time getting to their flight.
BAA, which operates Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted said losses in the first quarter of 2009 are six times worse than in the same period last year.
One year on, BAA handled 2.8 million fewer passengers - a fall of 10%.
But its operating costs have soared 20% after the opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5 and having to take on more staff to end passengers' security queue nightmares. That outsripped the 16% rise in revenues to £522 million.
And its interest bill - a legacy of the heavily debt-driven £15 billion takeover of BAA by Ferrovial of Spain three years ago - has quadrupled to £327 million.
On top of all that, the group was forced to take further losses on the writedown in the value of Heathrow's ageing terminals 1 and 2 as well as a charge on its pension scheme.
Chief executive Colin Matthews said: "These results are delivered in the most difficult economic circumstances."
But the corporate turnaround expert who in the past has orchestrated complicated restructuring jobs at Severn Trent and Hays added: "There are indications that the pace of decline has slowed down. We are keeping at our forecasts of a drop in passenger numbers for the year of 3% as the declines become flatter when they are up against the larger drops seen in the second half of 2008.
"But we like everyone else are wondering when the bottom of the market is."
One bright spot was the spending of passengers in airport terminals in the quarter, up 8.8% per passenger.
"There is an obvious connection between passengers having a clearer run through security and then being at ease to spend money," said Matthews. "At Heathrow we have also had the benefit of a weaker pound and the buying power of transfer passengers whose currency isn't sterling."
Matthews also said that the announcement of a winner in the three-way auction for Gatwick whose sale is being forced upon BAA by the Competition Commission is "weeks away".
Reader views (5)
Close the airports; they are lame ducks; Margaret Thatcher was right; stop propping up uneconomical industries with tax payer’s money; we want tax cuts, not tax increases; lets sell of something else; we don’t need Scotland; sell it to the Americans.
- Mickyinlondon, london
A majority of the extra sales profits I suspect come from the expensive bottled water they sell because passengers can't bring their own.
- Paul, Feltham
We had always remained very loyal to BA for years. There was a situation at Heathrow Airport that in our opinion, was totally mishandled.
We wrote to BA explaining situation only to be told that it was all our fault, inspite of all our polite letters trying to explain we have been met with nothing but negative behaviour...
We are desperately sad that inspite of all our loyalty to BA to be treated in that way was appalling.
How many other people have had the same experience.....maybe that is part of the reason that they are losing money - not looking after their clients could be a bigger part of the overall picture.
- Elizabeth Taylor, dallas tx
"At Heathrow we have also had the benefit of a weaker pound and the buying power of transfer passengers whose currency isn't sterling."
What patriots these people are. Obviously we need to pay for another runway to keep more transients stuck in BAA's shopping malls. And can Mr Matthews explain why a new, shiny terminal is costing money rather than saving it?
- Mdj E10, london uk
The airports are to expensive. I am glad that they are losing money. Bring your prices DOWN !!
- Grim Reaper, Hell
