May figures show slowing trend
British Airways has today (June 3) reported a 17.2% drop in premium traffic as passengers continue to abandon business and first class.
But the airline's year-on-year figures for May showed a slowing in the downward trend which has accelerated over the last six months.
April saw a 17.7% decline in business and first class travel as BA's traffic losses show signs of steadying.
In September last year BA reported a decline in premium traffic of 8.6% as the impact of the economic downturn began to be felt. Premium traffic deteriorated sharply in February this year with a record decline of 20.2%.
Other figures for May showed system-wide capacity down 5.3%. BA said the decline in the number of seats served was in line with expectations.
"The fall in capacity for the month is consistent with the 2.5% average reduction for the summer announced on May 22, with the reductions weighted towards the months before and after the summer peak," BA said in its report.
BA's UK and Europe volume fell 7.8% to 1.7 million passengers in May, from 1.9 million last year. Budget airline Ryanair was quick to stick the knife in pointing out its 5.5 million UK and EU passengers in the same month, around three times as many as BA.
Out of BA's key regions, Asia Pacific's figures suffered the most. Traffic fell 19.2%, almost three times the next largest regional decline. A heavy reduction in capacity of 17.4% resulted in the only regional growth in load factor, or percentage of seats filled, at +0.5%.
BA said market conditions have "remained unchanged". Ceo Willie Walsh yesterday told employees that the airline faced a "fight for survival" in the midst of an aviation crisis that has "never been more serious".
Europe's three largest network carriers - BA, Lufthansa and Air France KLM - have all suffered heavy financial losses and issued bleak predictions.
Last month BA reported a record loss full year of £401m, its worst result for almost 20 years (see ABTN news May 22).
www.ba.com