British Airways is the UK's largest international scheduled airline, flying to over 550 destinations at convenient times, to the best located airports

British Airways est la plus grande compagnie aérienne régulière au Royaume-Uni. Elle dessert à des fréquences régulières les plus grands aéroports d'environ 550 destinations à travers le monde. 

http://www.britishairways.com

British Airways today (February 5) presented its interim management statement for the nine months ended December 31, 2009.

Period highlights:
Nine month operating loss of £86 million (2008:Operating profit £89 million) 
Nine month loss before tax of £342 million (2008:Loss before tax £70 million) 
Revenue down 12.9 per cent (Revenue before exchange down 18.0 per cent) 
Total operating costs down 10.5 per cent 
Unit costs down 6.7 per cent 
Cash and committed facilities of £4 billion, including £2 billion of committed aircraft facilities 
Q3 operating profit of £25 million (2008:Operating loss £51 million) 
Q3 loss before tax of £50 million (2008:Loss before tax £122 million) 
British Airways’ chief executive Willie Walsh, said: “These results highlight the impact of permanent changes across the company on our costs. Those changes, combined with capacity reductions and external spending cuts, mean operating costs are down by 10.5 percent and show that we’ve adapted quickly to the new business realities created by the global recession. 
“While we are on the right track, we still expect to make record losses this year. Permanent structural change is being introduced in all areas and will return us to sustained profitability.
“We are working with our staff, their unions and the trustees about solutions to address our £3.7 billion pension funds’ deficit and are discussing a range of changes to future pension benefits.
“In November, we signed a binding Memorandum of Understanding with Iberia for a proposed merger and are on track to finalise the merger agreement by the end of the year. 
“We remain confident of receiving regulatory approval for our proposed transatlantic joint business with American Airline and Iberia.
“We continue to invest in new products for our customers. Next week, our new First class cabin takes to the skies onboard a Boeing 777 flying to New York JFK. The investment in First this spring strengthens our progress towards being the leading global premium airline.” 
Financial review
Quarter 3 saw our first operating profit since quarter 2 last year. This is largely as a result of the considerable progress we have made on reducing our costs.

Total revenue in the period was down 12.9 per cent.

Passenger revenue was down 13.0 per cent, on capacity down 3.9 per cent. Yields were down 11.1 per cent, 15.8 per cent excluding exchange, largely as a result of lower year on year surcharges and sales mix within cabin class. Our premium traffic volumes have declined by 9.7 per cent in the year to date, significantly better than industry figures as disclosed by IATA. Volumes are stable and yields are starting to show improvement. 

There was a marked improvement in cargo volumes and yields during the three months from September to December 2009. Since April 2009, volume, measured in cargo tonne kilometres, decreased by 4.4 per cent compared to the prior year, more than 2 points better than market performance. Cargo revenue declined by 25.1 per cent with yield declines of 21.7 per cent driven by significantly lower fuel surcharges, in line with lower fuel prices and significant market price declines.

Other revenue is showing an improvement of 9.2 per cent from last year driven largely by the introduction of new web based ancillary sales and increased use of Airmiles for hotel and leisure activity bookings. 

Total operating costs were down 10.5 per cent, despite the weakening of sterling compared to the same period last year. Fuel costs for the period were down 19.2 per cent on last year. Other operating costs decreased by 6.4 per cent due to the continued delivery of the cost reduction initiatives launched more than 12 months ago. Operating costs include a charge of £62 million for restructuring (£49 million for the same period last year). Excluding fuel, the impact of exchange and restructuring costs, our unit costs are down 6.8 per cent.

Non operating costs include £150 million of net financing expense relating to pensions and net finance costs of £94 million. 

Loss before tax for the period was £342 million. 

The tax rate for the period was 28 per cent.

Our financial position is strong. Our liquidity position at the end of December was £2 billion, including £1,587 million of cash and some £465 million of general facilities. In addition we have £2 billion of committed aircraft facilities. 

The increase in reserves since March 2009, is primarily driven by the retranslation of foreign debt and the marked to market movement on fuel and currency hedges of £594 million. The equity component of the convertible bond raised in August 2009 adds a further £84 million to reserves. Net debt at the end of December was £2,310 million, a decrease of £72 million from the end of March 2009.