Premium seats blow as BA passenger numbers tumble

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 21:26

BRITISH Airways carried almost 5 per cent fewer passengers last month than in June 2008, the airline said yesterday.

A total of 2.93 million people travelled on the airlines scheduled services – a 4.9 per cent fall on the June last year.

Asia Pacific traffic – down 16.8 per cent – represented the biggest fall, while Africa and Middle East passenger numbers were up 0.9 per cent.

BA planes flew 79.6 per cent full last month, compared with 81.4 per cent in June 2008.

The airline had a 14.9 per cent fall in business-class and first-class flyers, while economy class numbers were down 1.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, low-fare airline Ryanair announced yesterday that it carried 5.84 million passengers in June 2009 – a 13 per cent increase on its June 2008 total.

Ryanair planes flew 85 per cent full last month compared with 84 per cent in June 2008.