British Airways reported a £148m pre-tax loss in the last three months, after business travellers and holidaymakers stayed at home because of the recession. The airline said it "continues to face very difficult trading conditions" and could not predict when a recovery will happen. The number of people flying is expected to be higher during the peak summer holiday months.

Revenue fell 12.2pc to £1.98bn in the three months to the end of June, and excluding currency changes, fell 16.8pc. BA reported a pretax loss of £148m compared with a profit of £37m pre-tax in its first quarter last year. The airline has not reported a loss in the first quarter since it was privatised more than 20 years ago.

British Airways said the pace of decline in passenger numbers "stabilised" during the quarter, although numbers were "considerably" lower on last year.

Read the full article in The Telegraph.


BA's passenger numbers are down considerably, as are BAA's customer numbers. If people really needed to fly they would do so, recession or not. The fact is that they don't need to, and they have found alternatives.

There is no need to expand Heathrow.