BA passengers drop on higher fares
04.07.08
British Airways flights were taking off with almost a quarter of their seats empty after higher airfares and a slowing economy led to 87,000 fewer passengers using the airline last month than in the same month a year earlier. BA blamed the fall on ‘significant’ increases in ticket prices due to the record high price of oil and a tough consumer environment in the UK.
The airline said passenger traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, was down by 3.7%, with traffic to Africa, the Middle East and the US the weakest. This comprised a 3.1% decline in premium traffic and a 3.8% fall in non-premium traffic. This resulted in a passenger load factor drop of 3.8 points versus last year, to 76.7%.
The airline said in a statement: ‘Significant increases have been made to prices including surcharges reflecting this rise in fuel costs. The UK consumer environment is difficult leading to reduced traffic volumes.’ Long haul premium and short haul economy flights were the better performing parts of the airline's business in June.
The traffic figures are seen as disappointing, as June typically signals the beginning of the summer holiday season and an increase in the number of passengers travelling. Tim Marshall, an analyst at UBS, told the Telegraph: ‘Three things are fairly clear: air fares need to increase, demand will then fall and capacity will then have to adjust. Today's traffic stats confirmed the first two of this sequence.’
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