BA strike to cost £40-£45 million

BA says that the total impact of last month’s strike action is estimated to be between £40 and £45million, and that March’s traffic fell by 11.4 per cent compared to the previous year, with capacity down by 13.7 per cent. The carrier says that half of the decline in capacity was due to the strike action, with the other half a result of “planned winter capacity reductions”. BA says that it operated 79 per cent of long-haul flights and 58 per cent of short-haul services during the seven days of industrial action. It added that when the impact of the cabin crew strikes are excluded from the figures, the underlying traffic trends confirm a “modest year-on-year improvement in premium traffic and non-premium traffic levels stable”. In its monthly traffic and capacity statistics press release BA also said  that the European Commission “has started formal market testing to seek the views of interested parties about British Airways’ transatlantic joint business with American Airlines and Iberia”, adding that the airlines had offered to lease four daily slot pairs  “to enable the EC to conclude its investigations into their joint business”. For more information visit ba.com.