BA reports strong growth

British Airways yesterday announced another set of strong passenger and cargo figures for May, writes Magnus Grimond.

The airline said the monthly total of passengers carried on scheduled flights increased by 6.7 per cent to 2,727, raising the total over the last two months by 8.5 per cent to 5,397.

The number of revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) grew 11.7 per cent compared with the same period last year. Scheduled passenger loads rose 3.7 per cent to a new May record of 70.2 per cent, despite a 5.9 per cent increase in capacity, measured by the number of seat kilometres available on scheduled flights.

Growth in traffic was again focused on long-haul routes, with RPKs up by 14.0 per cent compared with 3.5 per cent on shorthaul. Passenger load factors were up on both the long-haul and short-haul networks.

However, reported growth in capacity and total traffic has been inflated by some 2 to 3 percentage points as a result of a directive raising the average weight per passenger used in the calculations.

On cargo, total scheduled revenue tonne kilometres for the month were up by 12.3 per cent.