British Airways has reported a pre-tax loss of £164m for the three months to the end of June, a period in which disruption from Icelandic ash and industrial action cost it £250m.
The pre-tax loss was slightly bigger than the £148m in the same period last year - due to currency movements and finance costs - but the airline's trading loss narrowed from £94m to £72m.
Chief executive Willie Walsh said BA's financial performance improved during the quarter, helped by cost cuts. He said trends in passenger and cargo traffic were 'positive'.
Total revenue was down 2.3% from a year earlier to £1.94 billion, but average revenue per passenger rose by 13.5%.
BA said it was continuing to target a break-even result at pre-tax profit level for the full year.
Meanwhile, Richard Branson's airline Virgin Atlantic announced today that it made a big operating loss last year but that revenues and passenger numbers rose in the first part of this year.
Virgin's group pre-tax operating loss for the period March 2009 to February 2010 was £132m, compared with a profit of £60m for March 2008 to February 2009. Revenues for 2009/10 decreased 8.6% to £2.35 billion but operating costs reduced 8%.
The company's airline revenue for the period March-May 2010 was up 10% to £513m, while its planes flew 82% full during this period - a 5% improvement on the same period last year.
Virgin said it carried 15% more passengers in its Upper Class (first class) cabin in March-May 2010 and also benefited from a successful start to its new service to Accra in Ghana.
The airline said customer compensation and operational cost of the Iceland volcanic ash cloud crisis was likely to cost it £30m.
'The start of the year has been encouraging despite difficult trading conditions. Demand is picking up across the majority of our routes and forward bookings for the summer have been very positive,' commented CEO Steve Ridgway.
