British Airways slumps to record annual losses

LONDON - British Airways has announced record annual losses of more than £500m, with the impact of cabin crew strikes and the volcanic ash cloud yet to be measured.

Walsh: attacked proposed strike action by cabin crew
Walsh: attacked proposed strike action by cabin crew

The airline's annual revenue fell 11.1% year on year, from £8.99bn to £7.99bn to 31 March, while pre-tax losses increased 32.4%, from £401m to £531m.

However, British Airways claims that chief executive Willie Walsh's controversial cost-cutting plan is working, with full year fuel costs down £597m year on year, and other operating costs down £390m on the 2009 figure. Staff numbers have also been cut by almost 3,800 over the past 12 months.

Walsh remains confident that the carrier's merger with Spanish airline Iberia will deliver annual savings of more than €400m by 2015, while the transatlantic joint business with American Airlines will help British Airways to become more efficient.

The chief executive also took the opportunity to attack the Unite union, which earlier this week won an appeal in the courts against a ban preventing its cabin crew members from going on strike.

Walsh said: "Returning the business to profitability requires permanent change across the company, and it's disappointing that our cabin crew union fails to recognise that. Structural change has been achieved in many parts of the business and our engineers and pilots have voted for permanent change."

Meanwhile, British Airways has launched another YouTube video featuring its chief executive (see below), criticising the Bassa branch of Unite, which it claims is preventing a deal from being agreed.

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