Passenger figures lift for British Airways

Despite the fact that some customers would have been deterred by the threat of a Christmas cabin crew strike, BA carried only 4.4 per cent fewer passengers in December 2009 than in December 2008.

With the strike being called off following a court ruling, a total of 2.40 million people travelled on BA flights last month, with the biggest fall (down 7.7 per cent) being on Asia Pacific traffic.

BA's planes were 76.8 per cent full last month – a fraction better than the 76.7 per cent figure achieved in December 2008.

The airline said its Club World long-haul business class traffic rose 1.6 per cent last month and its long-haul business and first-class numbers continued to show signs of improvement.

The airline also said that 98 per cent of its flights operated last month despite the pre-Christmas bad weather.

Meanwhile, budget airline easyJet, which had to axe a number of flights because of the snow before Christmas, reported yesterday that it had carried 3,399,305 passengers in December – a 9.3 per cent rise on its December 2008 figure.