The buoyant predictions by the airline come a day after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported a 4.6% drop in air passenger traffic during November over the same month in 2007. The association also stated that markets for European carriers in North Americas and Asia had "declined." In fact, Giovanni Bisignani, IATA director general and CEO, had stated that the gloom would stretch forward into 2009 besides predicting "deep losses" by airlines.

However, Richard Tams, BA"s head of sales for the UK and Ireland, remarked, "It"s not all doom and gloom for travel in the current economic climate as destinations such as Dubai and the Caribbean Islands of St Kitts and St Lucia continue to experience growth and investment, so we anticipate greater numbers of customers wanting to travel there. South Africa will be popular thanks to the relative strength of the pound against the rand and the upcoming British Lions tour.”

A recent media report has revealed that British Airways is considering buying a stake in GoAir. In a recent article, The Economic Times has stated that BA is debating whether or not to take up a 25 per cent stake in the low-cost Indian carrier.

Citing sources close to the potential deal, the newspaper said that a meeting is scheduled to take place between the two airlines in London somewhere during next month.

Asked about the media speculation, BA declined to comment. However, GoAir said that it "does not have any agreement with any other foreign carrier at the moment".

British Airways has confirmed orders for a fleet of 11 new generation fuel-efficient aircraft, which assure unrivalled levels of space and comfort on board. BA CityFlyer, the wholly owned subsidiary of BA is to take delivery of the first of its new Embraer aircraft, which will be operated exclusively from London City Airport starting from September 2009.

The airline has also placed firm orders for six Embraer 170 and five Embraer 190SR efficiency jets, labelled as E-jets, besides opting for three more. As per current list prices, the total worth of the investment would be US$376 million.

The airline said the new aircraft will replace the current fleet of 10 Avro RJ100 and two RJ85 aircraft operated by BA CityFlyer, adding that the key concern in ordering these new aircraft is that they are greener and more fuel efficient reporting lower carbon dioxide emissions. The Embraer 190SRs and Embraer 170s will serve on routes from London City Airport to Scotland, Ireland and Europe.

British Airways has recently stated it did not view its proposed merger deals with Iberia and Qantas and a tie-up with American Airlines as alternatives adding that all these moves could happen if regulators approve.

In a statement made on Wednesday, BA"s group treasurer George Stinnes said, "We"d be very happy to consummate all these transactions. It"s certainly not an "either-or" situation.”

The airline said on Tuesday that it was examining a potential merger with Australian carrier Qantas Airways besides continuing its discussions regarding a possible merger with Spanish carrier Iberia.

In a recent announcement, British Airways has announced that it would resume its flight services between Heathrow and Saudi Arabia with effect from 29th March next year.

Following the start of the service, the carrier will offer five flights a week from Terminal 5 to Saudi Arabian cities including Jeddah and Riyadh. The airline has stated that the tickets are already put on sale from Wednesday, 26th November.

While stating the rationale behind reinstating the route once again, a statement published on the BA website observed, "We are able to restart flights because the aviation market between the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recently been liberalised.

Recently, British Airways has raised a serious concern over the state of affairs at UK Airports while urging the Competition Commission and the UK authorities to devise a system that gives way for a thorough regulation of airports and airport operators. The insistence from BAA follows the recommendation of Competition Commission that BAA needs to leave any two of the three airports owned and operated by it because of falling performance and declining customer satisfaction. Notably, BAA presently owns and operates Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. When Ryanair is explicitly forcing the government to force BAA to give up two of these airports, British Airways has the notion that the goal of the government needs to be improving the condition of regulations at the airports rather than calling for a change of ownership. 

Among several suggestions forwarded by British Airlines, one of the potential suggestions to ensure better regulations at the airports is to introduce a licensing system that would put the owners of the airports in a position where they are more accountable to anything that goes wrong within their airport. In other words, if BAA is not able to meet the customer satisfaction in addition to satisfying the government authorities that would eventually give way for the authorities to impose a series of sanctions and any other appropriate punitive measures to penalize the operator. However, the principal factor in implementing the system is that the public authorities must be able to closely monitor the state of affairs at the airports and decide the appropriate action as and when necessary.

A recent report published by the Sunday Times notes the statement made by Willie Walsh, the British Airways chief executive who has clearly vowed that the airline has firmly decided not to surrender the runway slots presently enjoyed by the airline at Heathrow. This move by the airline follows its proposal to initiate an alliance with American Airlines.

While addressing the personnel from the newspaper, Walsh said that BA would never be ready to give up any of the slots that have been obtained by paying a good sum. Notably, the prized slots have changed hands with the charge of GBP20 million pounds (USD$37.45 million) for a pair. Over and above, during the present state of things at the airport, the competition regulators are tipped to a heavy demand. The demand is so heavy that the two carriers need to forego up to not less than 10 slot pairs on an average day.

Willie Walsh observed, "There should be no slot remedy, I don't see how it could be justified.”

Preparing themselves for staging a protest, the flight attendants of the British Airways are opposing the decision by the carrier to limit the amount of bottled water available to the cabin crew. The situation has grown so worse that the flight attendants have taken this issue so seriously and are looking forward to stage a strike unless this rule introduced recently by the carrier is backed down. According to the new regulations put in place by BA, the flight attendants can make use of not more than 500ml of free bottled water following each of their shifts on long-haul flights.

Following the introduction of this rule, some of the employees of the airline quickly pointed out that since long, the airline has been recommending that the flight attendants drink about 1.5 litres of water during the hours following each of the long-haul flights to avoid dehydration. In fact this suggestion forms part of a written manual that has been handed over to the flight attendants as part of the airline's guidelines. Those supporting the airline on this cost-cutting issue introduced recently say that the flight attendants must simply drink tap water upon arrival. On the other hand, the employees argue that on several occasions, the tap water is not just in a drinkable condition according to the standards acceptable to the prescriptions made by the World Health Organization. Notably, this is the first time the carrier is limiting the usage of water by the flight attendants.

A recent report published by the Daily mail states that British Airways would take all necessary efforts to publicly defend its decision to merge with American Airlines with respect to its transatlantic flights. Most notably, British Airways faces a very sharp criticism from Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic. Richard Branson argues that a decision by the airline towards a merger would negatively impact passengers, thereby leaving the passengers. On the other hand, the merger between the British Airways and American Airlines must still receive the approval from regulators in the United States. Since BA is highly interested in making the case that a fusion will not have negative consequences for consumers, and that if the media reports are correct, the carrier is most likely to make this point tomorrow.

It is however most likely that the British Airways will argue in favour of the merger telling that a merger would invariably improve the connections for those passengers flying across the Atlantic before they avail the transfer to another flight in the US and also vice versa. The agreement would give way to both the airlines ensuring that their schedules are thoroughly coordinated in a highly effective manner enabling the passengers to collect more points under the frequent fliers programme. With both these airlines being members of the Oneworld alliance, passengers can easily earn and redeem points while flying with either of the carriers. On the other hand, British Airways is yet to answer the concerns of Branson.

According to the estimated figures released by Official Airline Guide (OAG website: www.oag.com), not less than 60 million fewer airline seats will be sold across the globe during the final quarter of 2008. The said condition foresees an overall seven percent reduction in the global aviation capacity. The company has noted that the soaring oil prices have compelled most of the airlines across the globe to cut back on the routes offered by them in addition to capacity cuts.

The report also noted that the situation is highly severe that the industry can witness it overtake the fallout noted during the September 11 attacks. During that time, the capacity fall was only five percent, which took about three years to recover.

Most notably, the areas that are worst-hit by this adverse condition in the domestic market of US are expected to absorb not less than one third of all the cuts estimated across the globe. Also, Asia is expected to feel the pinch of the situation with a fall in the capacity by about 13 percent.

A recent statistics published by the Visit USA Association has revealed that during this year, Britain has been seeing a record number of visitors from Britain.

The Telegraph has reported that based on the figures noted through May, there was not less than 11 percent rise in the number of UK visitors to America, when compared to the number recorded during the same time last year.

The article in the newspaper suggests that the increase was mainly on account of the conversion rate of pound to dollar that has become highly favourable now. In addition, the Brits appear to take a great advantage of the good vales presently available in accommodation and shopping.

In a highly strategic move, British Airways has announced the details of a multi-million pound marketing campaign. Most notably, the principal aim of this campaign is to boosting the image of Terminal 5. Most notably, T5 was the subject of severe media derision during the recent past on account of the chaotic opening of the terminal during last March, when about 15,000 pieces of luggage were reportedly missing and several hundreds of flights were cancelled.

Though the situation has considerably got reversed and the media is presently witnessing more positive reports from several circles, the facility still appears to retain a dubious image, which BA is bent upon reversing at any cost mainly with the help of the present advertising campaign. The campaign will stretch over 38 days and will be mainly centered on the no-nonsense slogan 'Terminal 5 is working'. The campaign will be rolled out across a broad range of mediums including print, radio and billboard, in addition to popular online platforms.

The campaign will feature an up-to-date statistics that project the efficiency in the terminal, in addition to lifting its customer experience image by projecting a passenger-eye perspective of this ultra-modern gateway.

So far British Airways enjoyed only a dull summer season with its traffic figures falling considerably lower than normal on several routes. According to a report published in the London Times, the load factor in the carriers of British Airways reported an average of 75.8 percent during July, though the peak summer season is normally expected to represent the time of growth with the flights flying full for most airlines. It is said that the load factor for this year's July was about 5.4 percent lower than the figures obtained during the same period last year. This change however appears to attest the arguments put forth by increasing number of industry analysts that Brits and the travelers across the globe in general are presently trying to nix the expensive holidays abroad on account of higher airfares and concerns regarding the health of the economy.

According to the estimation of the experts, a 75 percent load factor might be usual during the slower seasons of fall or spring. However, this is remarkably lower for the peak summer month, when usually several Brits set out on holidays than any other time in a year.

On the other hand, despite the discouraging results for the summer, Iberia-BA's Spanish partner appears to be still interested in the UK's flag carrier. Most notably, Iberia had already bought a 2.99 percent stake in British Airways, but the airline said that it would now go into investing an additional £2 million in shares, so as to ensure that the airline is able to emerge as an even more important stockholder.

In a recent statement made by the airline, Iberia has strongly blamed the soaring costs of fuel and the weakening of demand for a significant and sharp drop in its earnings. Most notably, the airline has lost €32.2m (£25.5m; $50.2m) during the first half of the year. This is a clear contrast from the situation where the operating profits of the company were valued at €69m just a year ago. The news has come at a time when the airline is at the verge of deciding over a possible merger with British Airways. Also, Iberia has come forward to increase its stake in BA.

Iberia has recently reported that the fuel costs for the airline have gone up by 38% to €732m. It has also stated that the introduction of a brand new Madrid-Barcelona high-speed rail link and the surplus capacity in the Spanish domestic market highly affecting the number of passengers. The soaring prices of fuel has contributed to a 4.1% rise in the operating costs at Iberia, thereby offsetting a marginal increase in revenues, up 0.1%, working out to €2.6 billion. Notably, the airline has already implemented a cut back on its internal flights in addition to contemplating on further capacity cuts later in this year.

On the other hand, Ferando Conte, the Spanish airline's chairman noted that Iberia has planned to purchase more shares in merger partner BA during the forthcoming months. Also, the airline stated last week that it had a 2.99% direct stake in BA, besides a plan to increase the holding to 9.99% before the two airlines merge.

In a surprising move yesterday, the ratings of Ryanair, easyJet and British Airway were all cut by investment banks. This is a result of the efforts of the aviation industry to sustain the slow economic growth.

Credit Suisse analysts have significantly lowered their recommendation on easyJet from 'outperform' to 'neutral'. In addition, the rating for Ryanair has been dropped from 'neutral' to 'underperform.' Also, Exane BNP Paribas has lowered its recommendation on BA from 'neutral' to 'underperform'. Over and above, the analysts have considerably lowered their share-price estimates over the stock of each of the airlines.

Credit Suisse London-based analysts including Gerald Khoo wrote observed, "It has become increasingly clear that the current consumer downturn is likely to be a prolonged one. The trading environment this winter is going to be a lot tougher than we had previously anticipated."

Several reports published in the media give a hint that British Airways is very close to complete the signing of a merger deal with American Airlines, the oneworld alliance partner of the carrier. It is said that an announcement in this regard can be expected in less than two weeks. British Airways has tried to merge in the past. However, the efforts of the carrier proved futile often because the firm did not obtain the clearance from the concerned authorities. However, the airline seems to be highly determined this time due to the fact that it is getting extremely difficult of our all the carriers to manage the issue of rising fuel costs and a decrease in the demand due to fall in the number of passengers.

Besides the merger plans with the American Airlines, British Airlines is also keen on a possible merger with Iberia, the flagship carrier of Spain. Most notably, both Iberia and American Airlines are members in the oneworld alliance. This fact presupposes that even before the merger, British Airways is enjoying a code-share agreement with these carriers in addition to enabling the passengers of all these airlines to redeem their frequent fliers points for reward on all their flights.

Addressing the journalists, Willie Walsh, British Airways' chief executive, noted that he would seek to proceed with both mergers in the earliest possibility. Several unofficial reports observe that after the merger, both American Airlines and British Airways would operate as a single entity in terms of transatlantic flights.

In a recent statement, British Airways has announced that it has decided to withdraw its scheduled operations from four London Gatwick short-haul routes, with the list including the airline's daily flights offered to Newquay Cornwall Airport. In addition, the airline has also plans to scrap two new services from Gatwick.

The present move by the airline ensues from the reaction of the firm to the first quarter financial results. It appears that the present cancellations form part of the wider programme to reduce costs across British Airways' network. Willie Walsh, British Airways' Chief Executive noted, "The combination of unprecedented oil prices, economic slowdown and weaker consumer confidence has led to substantially lower first quarter profits."

Most notably, British Airways once again started serving Newquay in March 2007, with the operation of midday services with Boeing 737 aircraft, which was perfectly scheduled to complement the higher frequency services of Air Southwest, which also operates its flights to London Gatwick-Newquay. The last flight of British Airways will fly to Newquay on Saturday, the 25th October 2008.

In a recent statement, British Airways has announced its decision to axe hundreds of flights that are operated between Glasgow Airport and London Heathrow Airport during this winter.

Following the implementation of this axing process, services between these two bases are most likely to fall by an average of about ten flights per week. Over and above, the airport is still holding open the further prospects of additional cancellations during the forthcoming months.

Most notably, the cutbacks contemplated upon by the airline at present are part of a wider programme of cost-cutting drive, amidst rising fuel prices giving way to an alarming 88 percent fall in the pre tax profits for this year.

British Airways, the airline giant has today announced several cuts in its services, blaming that the soaring oil prices has necessitated this move. The cuts announced recently include about 77 return flights operated between Glasgow and Gatwick, with effect from the introduction of the forthcoming winter timetable. The flight cuts come forth after the carrier announcing a significant drop in its profits for the first financial quarter. Most notably, the drop amounted to about 88 percent on account of various economic conditions.

BA has confirmed that the pre-tax profits for the quarter ending with 30th June had fallen to £37 million from the earlier value of £298 million during the same quarter last year.

The introduction of cuts means a withdrawal of about 10 flights per week in the Glasgow to London route from October to March. Most possibly, there might as well be additional cuts of flight services that are operated between London and other popular destinations.

In a recent and highly significant move, British Airways has completed the purchase of L'Avion. Most notably, this move shall pave way for expanding the fleet of its new subsidiary OpenSkies.

Earlier this month, British Airways had announced that it has serious intentions of acquiring the French business class carrier. In this connection, British Airways had submitted a bid of £54 million for the airline.

Following the purchase, the complete integration of L'Avion's Boeing 757 aircraft into the OpenSkies fleet is expected to be completed by early 2009.

As part of the series of measures launched by the airline to offset the rising fuel prices, recently British Airways has decided to trim the network of its short haul flights.

It is expected that the complete details of these cutbacks will be published along with the first-quarter results of the airline that are due to be released on Friday. Most notably, it appears that the present move shall hit hard on the Gatwick Airport, where is set to see the axing of not less than 20 percent of the airline's short-haul network.

Over and above, some sources that are close to the airline note that Heathrow shall also witness a significant number of cuts besides Gatwick. On the other hand, though Heathrow is the main operating base for British Airlines, the cut backs at Heathrow shall not be as significant as those at the Gatwick Airport. The capacity reductions introduced by the airline shall come into effect between October and April.

With the British Airways all set to transport the British Olympic athletes to the Summer Games in Beijing, it is taking all necessary measures to see that the representatives of the athletic world are offered the best of its services. With the credit of having worked with British Airways for long, Neil Shah is getting ready to offer the passengers his expert opinion on the methods of avoiding the negative effects of lengthy flights. He shall offer special information exclusively meant for Olympic athletes who will soon make their journey to Beijing. Most interestingly, British Airways is organizing a major campaign aimed at supplying this health and well-being information.

In addition, Neil Shah will also be offering a good deal of stress management techniques for travelers who are getting ready for their journey, so that they are well informed with the good ideas related to packing, organizing and checking in for flights, with the ultimate aim of this exercise meant to make the travel experience the least stressful. In a recent interaction, Shah noted the revelations of a recent poll, which shows that not less than three fourths of all passengers feel a considerable degree of stress immediately before a flight.

Shah advises that once passengers are onboard, they need to remain well hydrated, since the dry oxygen in the aircraft cabins tend to increase the risk of dehydration. Instead of beverages, carbonated drinks and alcohol, Shah would advise the passengers consume plain juices or water. Deep breathing practices inside the aircraft and light physical activity upon arrival were other useful suggestions by Shah.

Ruling out several recent criticisms, British Airways has insisted that it has no plans to operate empty planes in order to hold back its valuable slots at London Heathrow Airport.

The present commitment of the British Airways follows an upsetting mistake by bmi deputy chief executive Tim Bye, who appeared to openly assert that his airline has decided to fly 'ghost flights' in order to safeguard its slots.

This statement gave way to serious outcries from several environmental groups and politicians, which demanded a swift 'correction' by the spokesman. However, later the spokesperson insisted that his comments meaning something else had been wrongly misunderstood and interpreted wrongly.

In a significant announcement planned to be made next week, British Airlines will be releasing the information pertaining to capacity cut down on a good number of its short haul routes nearly up to 5 percent. This move follows as the airline is continuously staying at the forefront of its stiff battle with the rising fuel costs. 

The services that are being rolled back include over a dozen of short haul routes offered by the airline throughout Europe. However, according to the present expectations, long haul routes are likely to remain unaffected by this move when the carrier announces its winter schedule on 1st August.

For British Airways, transatlantic routes have been proving lucrative and profitable continuously for quite sometime despite the severe impact of the economic conditions on the airline industry, especially in the United States. Though there is a stiff competition across the Atlantic, more number of business travelers are proving to be loyal to the airline and continuously fly in the premium classes.

In a significant deal entered recently, British Airways and American Airlines are said to be on the verge of completing their transatlantic partnership. According to a report published by the Financial Times, unnamed insiders of both the airlines have confirmed that the two firms are now finalizing an agreement and now looking forward to move forward with the joint venture that shall help them achieve their mutual concerns.

Most notably, the joint venture would consist of getting bringing Spain's Iberia into the accord, which shall eventually pave the way for the airlines to file for antitrust immunity from US regulators.

At the outset, the recent times are reported with growing crisis in the travel industry. Factors like rising fuel costs and the anxieties related to global economy are creating compelling circumstances for several operators to look forward to entering into alliances, since there are serious concerns in the industry that the possibility of survival is remote for weakest carriers.

Recently, British Airways has decided to cut its capacity during the forthcoming winter season by up to 5% in addition to carrying out a partial freeze on hiring. These moves are acknowledged by the airline as a significant achievement by the company towards averting the financial loss expected during this year.

 The carrier has decided to bring down the number of flights on its routes besides rolling back some services totally between October and March. This move follows the fact that the airline is literally struggling to bring down the operational costs that have soared up with the rise of fuel prices.

According to Willie Wash, the chief executive of BA, the weakening global economy is to be blamed in this connection, which has pronounced a remarkable impact on the demand for air travel. He noted, "I have no doubt the prices people are paying for energy are beginning to hit, and people are seeing higher prices for food. Generally, the economic environment is softer than it was six months ago."

In a statement made recently, British Airways has justified that the present hikes of airfare costs are absolutely inevitable under the prevailing circumstances of record high fuel costs. Willie Wash, the BA chief executive observed that the fuel price and the economic conditions linked to it have left Britain's national carrier without any choice than implementing a fare hike and a capacity cut.

Though this week saw a record fall in the price of oil, the price of kerosene in the market remained expensive for several carriers, which have invariably forced several carriers including BA to increase their fuel surcharges. However, according to Willie Wash, measures like ticket price hike and capacity cuts offer scant protection against the increasing volatility in the sector. He said, a significantly dramatic rise in base airfares is the only viable solution to avert the present day crisis in the airline industry.

He too said that the economic slowdown on both sides of the Atlantic were seen combined with fuel pressures, which create a double impact that has seen the bust of not less than 25 carriers since last summer. While commenting on the present day crisis, Willie Wash noted that this would not be an easy year to the airline industry on the whole. He added, "I have no doubt the prices people are paying for energy are beginning to hit … Generally, the economic environment is softer than it was six months ago. I think it's absolutely inevitable that prices will go up. Fares will have to go up."

During an announcement made jointly by the two companies on Tuesday, Ryanair and British Airways have confirmed that they will cut flights during next winter to manage the rising cost of fuel that is threatening to scrap out their profits for this year.

According to BA chairman Martin Broughton, there are possibilities for extra fuel costs during this year of more than GBP1 billion pounds (USD$2 billion). Most notably, this is in fact more than last year's record profit of GBP875 million.

Addressing the annual shareholders meeting of the company, Martin Broughton said, "I don't want anybody to be under any illusions that in the current operating conditions, it will be a considerable achievement for British Airways to break even this year."

With the rise of ticket prices across the industry, there has been a wide spread dismay and frustration among the passengers. In an effort to appeal to its customers, British Airways has recently announced a seat sale on its flights to a total number of about 27 cities. According to the announcement of this seat sale, the passengers booking well in advance for these tickets can reap tremendous discount benefits if they are just willing to accept a few restrictions. Most interestingly, this deal is specially targeted towards Americans, who wish to make trips to UK or Europe, despite the low value of the US dollar in comparison with the euro and British pound. To avail this offer, passengers must purchase their tickets at least seven days in advance before the date of scheduled departure. In addition, the actual travel must be dated between 4th September and 22nd October.

The attractive discount deal between New York's JFK Airport and destinations like London, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Frankfurt, Milan, Malaga, Brussels and Dubrovnik enables passengers purchase tickets for a remarkable discounted rate of $562. Notably, this price includes the fuel surcharge. Slightly more expensive than this, the airline also offers heavy discounts on routes to other 18 cities presently served by British Airways. All continental European flights are subject to a transfer in London. The additional bonus includes an additional $50 reduction on car rental or hotel accommodation. Also, those willing to pay an extra $150 each way can upgrade from regular economy to premium economy service. 

Visit www.ba.com

During a statement made recently, Willie Walsh, the CEO of British Airways has indicated that airfares are certainly on the track of rising due to the continuous soaring of oil prices. Over and above, some industry analysts have predicted that the price of oil may touch $2.00 per barrel by the end of this year. Though oil price presently stands at $150, Walsh said it is totally inevitable that the prices keep rising up amidst the contemporary circumstances.

Martin Broughton, the chairman of the company went a step further to say that the current crisis in the industry might prove to be the biggest that the aviation industry has ever known in its long history. However, striking a lighter note, Willy Walsh reflected the same idea in his statement when he said that this year shall never prove to be an easy year for the whole of commercial airline industry.

The requirement of current price rise at British Airways calls for not less than a four percent hike across all tickets. This rise is independent and on top of the increases due to fuel surcharge that was implemented earlier during this year. In line with several other carriers across the industry, British Airways also argues that the firm has no other choice than to increase the charges, as the price of fuel now constitutes not less than 35 percent of the expenses incurred in operations. Notably, a year ago, this was only about 10 percent of the total operational expenses.

Totally discarding a widespread claim, British Airways boss Willie Walsh has challenged the statement that the airline is 'losing more than 900 bags a day' at the brand new Heathrow Terminal 5. In his letter addressed to The Guardian he says, "The bags are not lost. They are the bags of passengers connecting between flights that become delayed in the transfer process, often for the simple reason that the incoming flight was late."

A representative of the union who had worked as a baggage handler at Terminal 5 told while addressing a committee of MPs on Wednesday that on an average, around 932 bags a day are missing their connections during the process of their transfer at the terminal. Notably, what he said was a rate of not less than 80 bags per 1000bags handled. He said that the main reason for this mishap is the lack of an automated system to take care of the transfer of bags between terminals 4 and 5.

However, Mr. Walsh said while addressing the Guardian, "The large majority of these delayed bags are flown by other carriers into other terminals for transfer to a BA flight and are not the fault of BA or T5. T5's new baggage system has also allowed us to reprocess delayed bags through security more quickly and, very often, have them ready for the next flight. Delays to transfer bags are a routine feature of every hub airport. The problem is compounded at Heathrow because its lack of spare runway capacity makes it vulnerable to flight delays."

In a highly welcomed and significant move, British Airways has developed a highly innovative flight booking application for the recently released Apple iPhone 3G.

As the airline is all set to release this creative and highly welcomed platform, it claims to have achieved an industry-first that enables the travellers to access real-time flight departure and arrival information.

Most notably, the second generation iPhone of Apple is clearly distinct and advanced than its predecessor in the way that that it makes it possible for third-party developers to create software by vastly enriching the range of the handset's functionality. This has truly captured the attention of the whole industry.

It is believed among the wider circles of the airline industry that British Airways is on the verge of signing a partnership with American Airlines, which would see these two companies share the revenue on some flights. However, British Airways has not indicated any decision to merge with American Airlines, its one world partner.

According to industry analysts, the strategic partnership is highly important and crucial for both the airlines since both of them struggle to manage the high fuel costs and consolidation in the air travel industry. The present move by the two airlines comes at a time when the industry witnesses several high-profile mergers. Some of the notable mergers that took place recently are that of the Delta Air Lines and Northwest.

If the revenue sharing deal is successful, then British Airways and American Airlines shall emerge as the undisputed champion in the industry when it is the question of transatlantic flights connecting London with the major cities of the US. For instance, the initial projections have said that the revenue-sharing agreement will allow the two carriers to control more than 80 percent of the highly lucrative market.

As part of £70 million compensation package paid out by BA and Virgin Atlantic, millions of UK airline passengers are presently encouraged to file their claims. Notably, two law firms assisted in realizing the compensation following the event when these two carriers admitted that they had colluded to fix fuel surcharge amounts. The American law firms filed their case representing over 11 million passengers. 

According to the compensation package, those transatlantic passengers who flew either on Virgin Atlantic or British Airways between August 2004 and March 2006 are entitled to receive refunds as part of the pending settlement of £100 million. Over and above, though the settlement was finalized in US courts, more than three fourths of the award is reserved for UK passengers who flew on these flights.

The refund amount ranges between £4 and £20 for a return ticket while the same is £10 on a one-way fare. Most interestingly, frequent flyers of either airline can hope to gain hundreds of pounds as refund. During the specified period mentioned in the announcement, the refund package applies to transatlantic flights and the other long-haul services.

For quite sometime, there have been strong rumours that British Airways has proposals to merge with American Airlines or Iberia, or at least the airline might greatly strengthen the already existing partnership with these two companies. However, in a recent statement, British Airways has totally rejected such assumptions. Earlier several newspapers and websites have been suggesting that an announcement pertaining to the merger between British Airways and at least one another carrier could be expected. In fact, this announcement was expected on 15th July during the airline's annual meeting.

On one hand, no such announcement appears to come forth, and at least it appears that it cannot be expected in the near future. However, on the other hand, in yet another statement, British Airways did confirm that it was in fact in the process of negotiating with American Airlines and Iberia. The details pertaining to the contents of this negotiation process were not disclosed. According to a spokesperson of the airline, the discussions with American Airlines and Iberia are ongoing and also said that such discussions are nothing new having started quite sometime ago.

According to industry experts, if any such arrangement comes forth, then it would position Virgin Atlantic the main competitor on several transatlantic routes. This news shall make the airline truly nervous. This is the principal reason why Virgin is highly keen in forming an alliance with British Midland (bmi) in addition to Lufthansa. Guardian has reported this recently.

In a recent publication, the Evening Times has reported that British Airways is bringing forward the time of its late return service departing from London Heathrow to Glasgow Airport.

According to this move, the final Heathrow-bound flight from this largest city of Scotland is being shifted from 8 pm to 6.45 pm. Across wider circles, it is believed that this move shall invariably curtail the flexibility enjoyed by the business travellers.

Over and above, the present move follows an earlier change made to the BA's Scottish timetable, in which the national carrier had confirmed that it will stop operating its 6am 'red-eye' flight between these two gateways on 27th October.

In a highly welcomed move, British Airways has announced its plans for dedicated Club World and Club Europe check-in desks at the Terminal 5 of the London - Heathrow Airport. Previously, British Airlines had insisted that only those passengers traveling in the first class along with the gold members of its executive club would have their own facilities at the £4.3 billion terminal.

The recent announcement shows a backtracking from this earlier stance of the airlines. According to a spokesperson of BA, even those passengers traveling in one of the club classes of the airline will be able to enjoy separate desks. This was told in a statement made to BusinessTravelWorld.com.

The spokesperson observed, "It follows feedback from our premium customers. We have previously done the same in our other terminals." However, he did not make any reference to the belated nature of the decision.

According to a recent newspaper report, American Airlines, British Airways and Spain's Iberia are just about to finalize an antitrust immunity to give way to a joint venture. Citing the executives of the three airlines, the Financial Times noted that the airlines aim to reach an accord on profit and revenue sharing during this month.

American and BA are intending to argue a case with US regulators since they both feel that the competitive landscape has been changed due to the "open skies" accord. Notably, the open skies agreement came into force between the United States and the European Union in March, permitting airlines to access any US city from any location in the EU and vice versa.

The agreement assures to increase the competition between different carriers besides cutting ticket prices and eventually give way for transatlantic mergers to create the first global airlines. BA and American are also arguing that the recent wave of mergers and new alliances have invariably made many of their biggest transatlantic rivals grow stronger, which have antitrust immunity with their partners across the North Atlantic. This has been told in the paper.

In an interesting move, British Airways marks the American Revolution and the independence of 13 colonies from Britain. On account of this, the flagship carrier of the UK is offering attractively discounted business class tickets for just $1,776 by way of reflecting the exact year of the actual breaking up of the revolution in the price of the tickets.  This discounted rate applies to most of the tickets for flights that depart from the airports of any one of the 13 colonies to the United Kingdom.

It is amazing to note that normally Club World seats cost nearly double this amount when regularly purchased. This means that the revolutionary and unbelievable promotion offered by the BA is one of the most wonderful and lifetime opportunity for those wishing to enjoy the luxuries and comforts of the premium class service for the price of economy class. Over and above, the $1,776 price tag also includes round-trip airfare from a range of US cities to London, with the list including New York-JFK, Atlanta, Washington DC, Boston and Philadelphia. The promotional period comes to an end after the Fourth of July holidays on 6th July. Therefore, to take advantage of this attractive offer, passengers need to act quickly.

There is yet another attractive aspect of the same discount. For instance, those availing this offer and visiting London can also upgrade their hotel room from four to five star accommodations totally free of charge. The offer extends over a good number of establishments in London including Kensington House, the Ritz, Park Lane and Grosvenor House.

In a highly significant move, British Airways is all set to acquire the French business class carrier L'Avion paying a price of £54 million. The national carrier of the UK has planned to employ the French fleet of Boeing 757 jets on the routes operated by Open Skies, the new subsidiary of the airline. Most interestingly, these routes also include the connection between Paris Orly Airport and New York JFK.

Most notably, following the demise of rivals MAXJet, Eos and Silverjet, L'Avion happened to be the last surviving member among the executive carriers. According to an analyst, the interest of British Airlines in this fleet bodes well as the sector is in bad shape threatening to collapse.

Douglas McNeill of Blue Oar Securities said, "OpenSkies really isn't an all-business offering but it does look a bit like one and that impression is strengthened by this move. It represents a vote of confidence in the trans-Atlantic premium market, which is very important to BA. People have been concerned about the strength of demand there."

In a highly interesting move, British Airways has entered into a deal with insurance company Mondial Assistance to provide its customers the company's insurance cover during as the customers go ahead with the online booking process. As per the deal, the airline will offer a 'opt-in' step to insure as the passengers book their tickets via the portal www.ba.com to purchase their tickets online. 

Most notably, BA's bid to give a boost to its ancillary revenue coincides with a time when rocketing fuel prices are pressurizing the industry. The three-year deal will stretch itself across 18 different markets and will be the first in Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus where services like Mondial's do not exist.

Explaining the unique features of this partnership, BA contracts manager Keith Vipan noted, "Through this partnership, we will be able to enhance the British Airways passenger experience and in addition, open up a new revenue stream revenue for the airline."

In a recent statement, British Airways has totally denied the accusations that the airline is scaling back its operations in Scotland. Earlier, some business groups have claimed that British Airlines is gradually dropping its links between Heathrow and some major Scottish airports for freeing up the slots for accommodating some long-haul services that shall prove to be lucrative then these links.

By way of proving its claim, the British Chamber of Commerce points out to the recent roll back of the "red-eye" 6am flight from Glasgow to the London hub. Most notably, this service had been highly popular among the business travelers as the time schedule proved to be highly convenient for a range of business activities at the capital.

On the other hand, the airline has totally denied the above said accusation and has said that even after the above said service was rolled back for several other important reasons, the airline is still operating not less than 100 flights in the route connecting the Scottish and the London airports every single day. 

Recently, British Airways has announced its decision to axe its earliest morning flight leaving from Glasgow Airport to Heathrow. The move follows the decision of the airline to merge the first two flights of the day departing to Heathrow into one service. The new flight is scheduled to leave at 07:05 instead of 06:00. The revised schedule will come into effect on 27th October when the 07:30 service will be cut. The second flight of the day will depart at 09:05.

The revised schedule has given way to concerns in the wider circles that the Scottish business and leisure travellers can arrive at Heathrow not before 08:30 and are likely to be delayed for a 09:00 meeting at the city centre. However, according to BA, the changes made in the schedule are part of its general review of services and assures that disruption for the passengers will be bare minimum.

The airline has decided to fly a larger 188-seater A321 aircraft as the first flight to London by way of making up some of the lost capacity. Over and above, BA will continue to offer four services to London City and five services to Gatwick. Notably, the earliest Gatwick flight departs at 06:15 and the earliest to London City departs at 07:00.

British Airways, the flag carrier of United Kingdom, has introduced an increase in the fuel surcharge imposed on travellers who fly on its premium class seats.

With the new tiered system for calculating charges, those travelling in the carrier's First Class, World Traveller Plus and Club World will be paying up to £24 more than people travelling in economy class. This is not a surprising move as almost all the airlines of the world are increasing fuel surcharge due to increased costs of fuel and it is also expected that further increase is also possible due to the fact that oil prices are expected to grow further in future.

The new system, which mirrors one newly introduced by Virgin Atlantic, marks the third time as many months that the carrier has increased its fuel surcharges in an attempt to deal with the all-time high fuel costs.

OpenSkies, the new business-class subsidiary of the UK's flag carrier British Airways, is to start operating its services from today, the 19th of June. This could prove to be a path-breaking inauguration for the aviation industry as it will open a lot of new ventures across the countries.

The carrier's inaugural flight will take place on the route from Paris Orly to New York, and according to an airline spokesperson bookings for the connection are going well and are beyond expectations.

The airline has been offering promotional ticket prices on its flights to US travellers, with premium economy seats available at just $750 one way. Taxes are not included in the offer price.

British Airways, UK's flag carrier, is close to reaching an agreement with aircraft maker Boeing to acquire up to twelve 777-300ER flying machines to offer bridging capacity after the major delivery delay to the Dreamliner's 787 it has placed an order for, reports Flight International. This is great news for passengers of BA, as they would be able to enjoy new aircrafts for many of their flights.

The carrier, which has placed an order for a total of twenty-four 787-8/9 aircrafts, was set to start taking delivery of the Rolls-Royce Trent-powered twinjets in the year 2010.

The British carrier refused to give details about when it now expects to start taking delivery of its 787 flying machines; though according to the reports by the magazine the aircraft manufacturer says that the average delay to the first delivery for its 787 clients is twenty months.

British Airways, UK's flag carrier, is planning to place an order for wide-body planes this year, although it is facing record high levels of fuel prices and lower passenger demand. This is a contrasting situation for other airlines that are downing many flights due to losses that they have to face in the wake of steep fuel price rise around the whole world.

An analyst at JP Morgan, Chris Avery, said: The delivery dates will be so far out that a recession won't matter".

Willie Walsh, Chief Executive of British Airways told Bloomberg today that the carrier is thinking about orders of Boeing's 777-300ER and the 787-10 aircraft, an extended version of Boeing's latest and much delayed composite jet.

British Airways, the flag carrier of United Kingdom, said that economic pressures on travellers might soon show a significant impact on demand for air travel services as on Wednesday it reported May traffic down by 0.7 per cent year-on-year.

The carrier, which increased ticket prices last week to deal with the higher fuel costs, said that long-haul economy travel was already down and that it remained to be understood how regular travellers would manage having less disposable earnings. It is usual in wake of oil price rise.

George Stinnes, head of investor relations at BA, said, "We have not seen a significant impact on volume so far, but clearly the pressure on people's budget is greater today than a year ago".

British Airways and Amadeus today said that they were stretching their existing association for a further 10 years, until the year 2017.

The fresh arrangement, which includes the entire IT Services association between BA and Amadeus, is the extension of the strategic agreement that began in the year 2000, planned to provide BA with a new generation technology platform for customer services management.
 
Accordingly, Amadeus, with the UK's flag carrier as a launch client, developed the 'Altea Customer Management Solution' consisting of 3 completely integrated parts: 'Altea Reservation' for distribution via BA's sales outlets, 'Altea Inventory' for international inventory management and 'Altea Departure Control' for the management of traveller check-in and flight take-off.
 
British Airways now makes use of the 'Altea Reservation and Inventory systems' which work in combination with the carrier's website ba.com and Revenue Management systems. 
 
The new deal with Amadeus gives an account of the terms under which BA would switch to the newly worked out Altea Departure Control, Customer Management system for traveller check-in.
 
BA CIO, Paul Coby, said, "I am delighted that we have been able to extend our strategic relationship with Amadeus which started in 2000. The Altea Reservation and Inventory systems have been great support for our drive to develop our sales and services to customers".
 
David Jones, Amadeus' Executive Vice President, Commercial said, "We are very pleased that British Airways has chosen to reconfirm their confidence in our solutions, both by extending their use of the installed systems and adding new ones to them.

We look forward to the full deployment of the full Altea platform for British Airways".

British Airways, the flag carrier of United Kingdom, is getting ready to stop flights and reduce capacity in the near future in order to deal with the record high levels of oil prices. This is not a surprising move as lots of airlines are expected to follow suit in the similar fashion.

According to the reports of the London Telegraph, BA chief, Willie Walsh, would examine the carrier's flights on a route-by-route basis in order to find out what should be cut so that losses can be minimised.

While giving a presentation at a meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Mr. Walsh indicated that the carrier could mothball a few of its older aircrafts, in a bid to save money. If BA chose this route, it will trail the example of Qantas, which reached the decision to adopt this strategy previously this year.