British Airways announced a pre-tax profit of £124m for the first quarter of its 2005-6 financial year, an increase of £49m for the same period for the previous year.
The UK national carrier also said its operating profit was £176m, its revenue up 8.3% to £2.1bn and its net debt £2.5bn, down £395 million since the start of the financial year.
Sir Rod Eddington, BA's outgoing chief executive, described the results as “good” despite a
37.6 per cent increase in fuel costs.
He said the improvement was driven by more customers flying in the carrier's premium cabins.
Sir Rod said that during the quarter up to June 30, BA had introduced online booking facilities for hotels and car hire as well as flights in a single transaction.
He said that online boarding passes were now accepted at 53 airports and that 94% of passengers used e-tickets on eligible routes.
BA chairman Martin Broughton said the uncertainty about the long term impact of the London terrorists' attacks and of the economic outlook and the volatility of both fuel charges and the US dollar exchange rate made accurate forecasting difficult.
But he added: “The continuing strength of the US dollar and increased surcharges have improved the revenue outlook. We now expect total revenue for the year to March 2006 to grow by 5.5 - 6.5 per cent. Capacity and volume are still expected to increase by about 3 per cent with total yield flat.
“We now expect fuel costs, net of hedging, to be about £525 million more than last year, a further increase of £75 million, largely driven by the stronger US dollar.”