British Airways Tumbles to Record Loss

London -- British Airways crashed to a record pre-tax loss of $630 million in fiscal 2008/2009 from a record profit of $1.45 billion in the previous year.

Europe's third largest airline blamed the $2 billion turnaround on lower cargo volume and passenger traffic  and a 45 percent surge in fuel costs.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh warned "the prolonged nature of the global downturn makes this the harshest trading environment we have ever faced." Walsh said there is "no immediate improvement visible".

The carrier posted an operating loss of $345 million -- including $123 million of layoff costs -- in the year to March 31, compared with a year-earlier profit of $1.38 billion.

Revenue rose marginally to $14.1 billion from $13.75 billion and the fuel bill ballooned by nearly $1.6 billion to $4.7 billion.

Full year cargo revenue rose 9.4 percent to $1.06 billion from $966 million thanks to strong volume growth in the first half of the year, but a slump in traffic in the second six months left traffic 3.5 percent lower at 777,000 tonnes against 805,000 tonnes.

Cargo revenue remains under pressure in the current fiscal year, with traffic slumping 14.8 percent in April from a year ago.

Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.