UK airport operator BAA has said rising business traveller traffic helped lower its losses in the first nine months of 2010. The company also unveiled plans for a bond issue to refinance part of its £2 billion debt.
BAA, owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, said its pre-tax loss for the nine months to the end of September narrowed by 75% to £192.6m as revenue rose 4.4% to £1.54 billion.
The owner of London's Heathrow said passenger traffic at London's busiest airport jumped 4.4% to 19.5 million from July to September compared with a year ago and that it was optimistic about its prospects for the remainder of the year.
'Although the UK economy is in a tough state, many parts of the globe are growing very fast so business travel to those places is buoyant,' BAA chief executive Colin Matthews told reporters.
BAA was last year hit by an impairment charge of £225m on the sale of Gatwick airport and an exceptional pension cost of £262m.
Global airlines have hiked their profit forecasts this year as recession fades and traffic rises. Industry body IATA said it expected the industry to post a combined net profit of $8.9 billion, more than three times the previous forecast of $2.5 billion made in June.
BAA, which also owns London's Stansted airport, said it hoped to raise between £250m and £325m through a bond issue to refinance the remainder of a £465.8m loan facility, which is due in 2011.
Ferrovial last week said it planned to sell a 10% stake in BAA to halve its debt pile. Earlier this month BAA was told it would have to break up its network of British airports after the UK Court of Appeal overruled a previous decision in its favour.
BAA will have to dispose of Stansted airport, north-east of London, and either Edinburgh or Glasgow airports in Scotland within two years, after the court said an original ruling by the Competition Commission had not been influenced by bias.
