BA passengers down 7.9%
07.05.08
British Airways said the chaos at Heathrow's new Terminal 5 was partly to blame for a 7.9% fall in passenger numbers in April, with changes to the date of Easter school holidays also playing a part. Problems with baggage systems caused the cancellation of 430 flights and caused the bags of thousands of passengers to be lost. The airline said it saw an impact from the troubled move to the new terminal and the operational problems in the early part of the month in April, particularly on transfer traffic.
2,592,000 passengers travelled with BA in April, down from 2,813,000 last year. The passenger load factor for the month - a measure of how full its aircraft were - fell by 5.1 percentage points to 71.6 percent. Traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres fell 7%, with a 3.4% increase in premium traffic and an 8.8% fall in non-premium traffic, which the airline blamed on changes to the date of Easter school holidays.
BA’s traffic figures show that its UK and European flights were the least full and these were the routes transferred to T5 at the end of March. Aviation analysts believe that the T5 chaos encouraged passengers to book on rival airlines, which contributed to the large drop in April’s traffic. Cargo tonne kilometres rose 5.3% to 408 million against 387 million a year ago.
BA head of investor relations George Stinnes told reporters market conditions remained broadly unchanged during the month. He said: 'Weakness in non-premium long-haul traffic has continued - if anything it's a bit weaker. It is a reflection of consumer spending - people feel a bit of a pinch ... in general, non-premium traffic from the US is at the weaker end.'
A spokesman said operations in Terminal 5 are continuing to improve, a normal schedule has operated for more than three weeks and more than 1.4 million passengers have travelled through the terminal since it opened on March 27. He said BA is continuing to focus on ensuring the stability of the baggage system in order to sustain performance levels. Its operations in Terminals 1 and 4 are also working well, he added.
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