Rough weather

London, Nov. 6: British Airways (BA) today announced its worst-ever interim loss since its privatisation in 1987 amid falling numbers of lucrative business travellers and freight cargo, as well as volatile fuel prices.

Today’s results, for the six months to September 30, show BA made a £292-million pre-tax loss compared with a £52-million profit last year. They mark the end of a torrid week for the airline as the threat of strikes over the crucial Christmas period heightened and the company faced a high court action over changes to staff contracts. The loss for the six months was greater than the £252-million forecast by analysts. Revenue fell 13.7 per cent to £4.1 billion against £4.75 billion in 2008.

Gert Zonneveld, an analyst at Panmure Gordon, said despite the losses, traffic for October had been better with improvements in premium long-haul traffic.