British Airways’s blues

There’s no doubt, to quote another member of the British establishment, that British Airways is enduring an “annus horribilis”.

A record loss, cabin crew strikes, the Icelandic volcano disruption, the threat of new UK taxes and the killing off of any prospect of a new runway at its London Heathrow home base have seen 2010 thus far prove a horror year for the airline that once proudly called itself the “world’s favourite”. Indeed it has been a tough few years for BA, really since the disastrous opening of Terminal 5 (or T5), to which most of its Heathrow operations shifted beginning in March 2008. Since that time it has endured the record fuel price spike of early 2008, the global financial crisis from late 2008, and the worst global recession since WW2. Then there is the £3. 7bn (A$6. 4bn) staff pension deficit, one reason the mooted merger with Qantas was scuttled in December 2008. It is all a long way from the £694 million net profit it reported for the year to March 31 2008, its last profitable result.