British Airways suffers pre-tax loss of £148 million

British Airways has reported a pre-tax loss of £148 million ($245 million) in the three months till the end of June 2009. This loss compares with a profit of £37 million that British Airways made in the same period a year ago.

The airline suffered an operating loss of £94 million in the quarter, compared to the profit of £35 million it earned in the same period in 2008.

While total revenues for the three-month period were down by 12.2 per cent, passenger revenues declined by 12.5 per cent and cargo revenues by 28.1 per cent.

The troubled British Airways has already cut 1,450 jobs since the end of March 2009 and has made its pilots agree to a cut in pay. Willie Walsh, chief executive of

British Airways, himself relinquished his salary for July 2009 in order to help the carrier reduce costs.

However, the national flag-carrier of the United Kingdom still faces the threat of strike by the ground staff.

British Airways had, earlier in July 2009, announced that it is planning to raise about $1 billion in emergency cash to stay afloat in the current economic recession.

Announcing the quarterly results of the airline, Willie Walsh said that trading conditions continue to be tough, with “underlying revenue down by 16.8% and no signs of improvement in sight.”

Traffic volumes, Walsh added, are down significantly compared to a year ago. Though traffic volumes stabilised to some extent during the 3 months till the end of

June 2009 and there are a few signs of improvement for the summer months, yields still stay volatile.

As a part of the cost cutting steps, British Airways will reduce its flight schedule as well as ground 22 aircraft in the coming winter season. In addition, the airline

has postponed delivery for its first Airbus A380 plane for nearly 5 months. And, the delivery of 6 more aircraft has been put off by about 2 years.

Many other major airlines, including Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, recently reported declining revenues.

While Lufthansa earned only 40 million euros in the second quarter compared to the 337 million euros it got during the same period a year ago, Air France-KLM

suffered a loss of 496 million euros in the second quarter, compared to a profit of 149 million for the same period a year earlier.