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".

The downbeat view appeared as airline companies enjoyed a share price rally as a result of dropping prices of oil, down almost $2 per barrel on positive US inventory figures.

Stinnes added, "Customers are fairly accepting of a (rise in the) fuel surcharge; they know it is a cost being passed on... But it depends on how essential people think foreign holidays are".

He further said that short-haul weekend breaks were predominantly exposed to a downturn.

BA said that short-haul business traffic and long-haul economy traffic were down last month, though long-haul premium travel-including the main route between London and New York-was slightly better than last year.

The decline in passenger numbers came alongside a decrease in load factor by 1.5 per cent.