"Security scares add to woes as UK airlines struggle to fill planes"

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Security scares add to woes as airlines struggle to fill planes
By Dan Milmo
United Kingdom - The Guardian 


The airline industry's struggle to fill planes could run into the peak
summer season after British Airways and Ryanair confirmed another month of
weak customer demand.

The news comes as public faith in Britain's airports suffered another jolt
with the attempted car bombing of Glasgow airport causing delays around the
UK as heightened security measures restricted access to terminals. BA said
in a trading update that it was too early to calculate the cost of the
delays - it cancelled 108 Heathrow airport flights after a bomb scare on
Monday - but it confirmed that last month it struggled even in a relatively
benign security environment.

Its passenger load factor, a measure of how full planes are, fell to 80.5%
in June, down from 81.9% in the same period last year. However, BA said it
carried 1.4% more premium passengers, its most lucrative customer category.
It reported continued problems with its economy class traffic to north
America and Europe, which resulted in its non-premium passenger numbers
falling nearly 2%.

Ryanair said its load factor fell to 85% in June, down from 87% in the same
month last year. The low-cost carrier has blamed the softer demand on rising
interest rates and a doubling of air passenger duty .

BA was also warned yesterday that its union problems could flare up again.
The T&G section of Unite said baggage-handling staff were under strain due
to job cuts. Brendan Gold, T&G national secretary for aviation, said: "Our
people are doing huge amounts of overtime and people are being drafted in
from other parts of the business to help move baggage but that's not a
sustainable position. There has been a failure of leadership by BA."

Willie Walsh, BA chief executive, said: "Heathrow operations have been very
difficult in recent weeks. The airport is running at nearly double its
intended capacity and this has been made worse by extreme weather and
security issues. The T&G's comments do not help our staff or our customers."

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