British Airways said today that its traffic fell by 22% in September from a year earlier, compared with a 13.8% fall in capacity, as the impact of the attacks on the US took its toll.
The airline said that the reduction in traffic comprised of a 33.2% fall in premium traffic - first class and business class - and a 20% fall in non-premium traffic.
The load factor, which measures the number of paying customers on seats, fell by 7.3 points to 69.2% in September against the same month a year ago, while cargo measured in cargo tonne kilometres declined by 38%.
Passenger numbers to the American continent fell from 720,000 in September 2000 to 488,000 last month - a fall of 32.1%.
'Forward bookings for October are indicating that traffic for that month will be down by around 25-30% versus last year, with capacity down at least 15%,' the airline said in a statement.'Costs for insurance and security are expected to rise significantly going forward.'
Nine days after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, Europe's largest airline said that it would cut 5,200 jobs on top of 1,800 announced before the attacks. It has also announced plans to ground aircraft and reduce flights.
