By IRNA,
London : Britain’s national airliner Friday reported a huge 45 per cent surge in record profits despite soaring fuel costs and its involvement in the disastrous opening of Terminal 5 (T5) at London’s Heathrow airport.
British Airways (BA) unveiled pre-tax profits to Pnds 883 m in the year to March 31 from Pnds 611 m the previous year. In doing so, it reached a 10 per cent operating margin for the first time in its history.
“This is an outstanding financial result for the company despite rising fuel prices and significant economic slowdown in the last six months,” BA chief executive Willie Walsh said in announcing the profits.
Walsh, who faced calls to resign over the chaos at T5, also announced that he will waive a bonus of about Pnds 600,000 he is entitled to.
BA earlier announced this month a further increase in fuel surcharges for passengers, including to Pnds 158 for return long- haul flights of more than nine hours.
It again warned about fuel costs, saying the total in the current financial year would rise by around Pnds 1 bn based on the current market price of around Dlrs 120 a barrel, more than double its forecast made in March based on an oil price of Dlrs 85 a barrel.
The debacle of the opening of T5 is also estimated to have cost around Pnds 16 m in the final five days of March alone, forced BA and BAA, the airport operator, to revise the timetable for the bulk transfer of the airline’s long-haul flights from Terminal 4.