British Airways Reports Traffic Decline and Load Factor Increase

www.britishairways.com

Yesterday, British Airways said that premium traffic declined more during the month of February. However, due to cuts in capacity, they proportionately filled more seats. The passenger load factor of the airline, which is the measure of how many available seats are filled by paying passengers on the airline’s flights, increased to 72%, by 0.5%, for the month. On the other hand, revenue passenger kilometers declined to 7.7 billion, by 8.3%, from the year before.

Premium traffic for the British carrier fell by 20.2% for the year, and non-premium traffic fell 5.5%. In January, premium traffic decreased 13.7%. British Airways generates a large sum of their profits from those who travel premium, especially on transatlantic routes. The decline is blamed on the extra day in February last year, which was reported to have a 3.5% negative impact. Plus, the record-breaking snowfall that hit England last month disturbed traffic, including many flights, which the airline says had a 3% negative impact as well.

The routes to Asia Pacific that British Airways operates were hit the hardest, falling 18.8%, while routes to Europe and the United Kingdom fell by 9.4%, based on revenue passenger kilometers. Routes to the Americas were hit as well, declining 7.2%.

Stinnes says that despite the wreak numbers in America, British Airways will continue focusing on the sale of tickets in the United States over the United Kingdom. This is so that they can benefit from the strong American dollar against the British pound, he continued. Stinnes also added that the conditions of the market are challenging but still in line with prior expectations.

For more information, go to www.britishairways.com