BA reveals hopes of traffic revival

BA's headline traffic figures fell for the 10th month running

Traffic on British Airways flights fell in November for the 10th consecutive month, but showed some improvement on the month before.

The number of passengers flying with BA was 17.8% lower last month than in November 2000.

In October, however, traffic fell by a steeper 24.7% compared with the same month in 2000.

At the same time, BA reported that it had cut capacity on the airline by 14.6% below November of last year.

In its statement, BA reported that "trading remains challenging", particularly for premium traffic - passengers travelling in business class.

The traffic improvement on October pushed BA's shares to close at 222.5p, up from their opening level of 207.5p.

Business travellers stay away

The reduction in traffic included a 24.8% drop for premium class and 16.3% decline for non-premium, or economy, class.

The passenger load factor, which measures the level of passenger take-up of seats, was, at 63.9%, down 2.4 points on November 2000.

BA said that the relative improvement in traffic, compared with October, was driven by ticket promotions.

"Non-premium traffic has been responsive to this type of price stimulation," said the BA statement.

"Premium traffic remains weak," it added.

Cheap tickets

The airlines also said that the promotions - which have put more than 100,000 discounted tickets on sale - were affecting yields.

Cargo carried on the BA aircraft fell by 18.8%.

Separately, the traffic and capacity statement from BA recorded that Concorde had returned to a commercial service between London and New York, and to Barbados.

The airline also said that it was expanding capacity to Tobago, Grenada, Antigua and St Lucia during the winter to cope with extra demand.