British Airways Posts Pre-tax Loss In H1; October Traffic Declines - Update

Fri. November 06, 2009; Posted: 05:29 AM

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(RTTNews) - British Airways Plc (BAY.L, BAIRY.PK) Friday reported a pre-tax loss for the first-half ended September 30, as the recessionary environment continued to hurt traffic, driving down revenues by nearly 14%. The UK flag carrier also reported a 1.9% decline in traffic for the month of October as capacity reduced by 6.4%. Further, the airlines said it sees revenue to likely be GBP 1 billion lower this year.

Pre-tax loss for the half-year was GBP 292 million, compared with a pre-tax profit of GBP 52 million in the previous year. Loss attributable to equity holders of the parent widened to GBP 217 million or 18.8 pence per share from GBP 49 million or 4.3 pence per share in the same period last year.

Half-yearly revenues were GBP 4.10 billion, down 13.7% from GBP 4.75 billion in the prior year.

Passenger traffic revenue declined 13.6% to GBP 3.59 billion from GBP 4.16 billion in the previous year. Cargo traffic revenues dropped 30.9% to GBP 251 million from GBP 363 million last year, as the business continues to be impacted by the worldwide decline in demand for airfreight. Other revenue were GBP 258 million, 11.2% higher than GBP 232 million in the same period a year earlier.

For the six-month period, traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, slid 1.6% to 59.998 billion from 60.974 billion in the comparable period. Total capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, for the period was 74.41 billion, up 3% from 76.73 billion a year earlier. Passenger load factor increased 1.1 points to 80.6% from 79.5% last year, as the company reduced capacity in line with demand. Load factor measures the proportion of available seats an airline fills with paying passengers.

Cargo traffic, measured in cargo tonne kilometres, dropped 8.1% to 2.24 billion from 2.44 billion in the previous year. Overall load factor increased 3.3 points to 74.0% from 70.7% in the comparable period.

"Aviation remains in recession with IATA predicting that the industry will lose $11 billion this year. We were quick to respond to the crisis by taking out excess capacity and, at the same time, driving down unit costs by 5.2 per cent," said British Airways' chief executive Willie Walsh.

Fuel costs for the six-month period were down 17.8% on last year, which resulted in a 8.7% decline in operating costs to GBP 4.21 billion, despite the weakening of sterling compared to the same period last year. Other operating costs decreased by 4.3% due to the continued delivery of the cost reduction initiatives launched last October.

For the month of October, traffic declined 1.9% to 9.51 billion RPKs from 9.70 billion RPKs in the previous year. Traffic comprised a 1.4% decrease in premium traffic and a 2.0% decrease in non-premium traffic.

Total capacity for the month was 11.79 billion ASKs, down 6.4% from 12.59 billion ASKs in the prior-year month. The company's passenger load factor increased 3.7 points to 80.7% from 77.0% last year. Overall load factor was 75.9%, up 3.3 points from 72.6% in the previous year.

Cargo traffic fell by 0.9% to 402 million CTKs from 406 million CTKs in the comparable period.

The International Air Transport Association, or IATA, has forecast a 15% decline in revenue for the industry this year. Although this will be partially offset by the fall in oil price, IATA has recently revised their global airline loss forecast by $2 billion to $11 billion for this year. Highlighting this, the company said that its revenue is likely to be GBP 1 billion lower this year. "Our traffic volumes and yields have stabilised compared to a very low base. We are continuing with our cost reduction initiatives to help offset the declines in revenue," Walsh added.

BAIRY.PK closed Thursday's regular trading at $31.15 per share.

BAY is currently trading at 199.60 pence per share, up 7.14%, on the London Stock Exchange.

For full details for BAY.L click here.

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