Security issues impact BA bookings

British Airways PLC has attributed security issues to impacting bookings as it reported a 3.5% increase in January passenger traffic compared with the same period last year.

Renewed security concerns at Heathrow airport have recently led to the cancellation of some transatlantic flights by the flag carrier.

The increase in January traffic, measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs), was due to a 1.1% increase in premium traffic and a 3.9% increase in non-premium traffic.

Passenger capacity - Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) - was up 4.4% above January 2003.

This meant the passenger load factor was down 0.5 points versus last year, to 69.1%.

Meanwhile, Cargo traffic, measured in Cargo Tonne Kilometres, rose 16.6% in January.

The overall load factor climbed one point to 64.8 pct.

Last week, BA confirmed plans to cut a further £300m (€439.14m) from its wage bill by March 2006.

The strategy is in addition to the airline's existing restructuring programme, targeting annualised cost savings of 1.1bn (€1.61bn) by March 2005.

The airline is scheduled to report third quarter to Dec 31 2003 results on February 9.