Passenger boost for airline

British Airways, hit lately by the Gate Gourmet catering dispute and rising fuel prices, enjoyed a welcome boost in terms of passenger numbers last month, it was announced today.

The airline carried 3.21 million people on its scheduled services in September 2005 – a 2.8% increase on September 2004.

The biggest increase – of 18.8% – was on Asia Pacific flights. UK and domestic flight passenger numbers rose 0.5%, while North and South America traffic was up 8.1%.

The only sector to record a decrease was Africa and the Middle East – down 0.1%. BA’s planes were 79.6% full last month compared with 77.9% in September 2004.