Terror scare cost BA £40m

12 April 2012

British Airways has said it cancelled 1,280 flights during last month's terror scare at a cost of £40 million.

The airline said it grounded the flights between August 10 and August 17 in the aftermath of an alleged plot to blow transatlantic flights out of the sky.

It said the disruption cost it £40 million in lost revenues and increased costs such as on hotels and catering for passengers and recovering lost baggage.

BA said bookings for the rest of the year were recovering but remained below levels seen before the terror scare and subsequent changes to security at airports in the UK, including restrictions on hand luggage.

The company said: "Since the disruption, there has been some impact on forward bookings.

"The overall level of bookings has returned to levels experienced last year, but is still weaker than the trend of the past few months. The recovery of premium and non-premium transfer traffic, for example, is lagging due to the limitations on carry-on baggage at London."

BA warned that it was too early to judge what the full impact of the terror scare would be on business but added: "Underlying market conditions continue to be good."

Hundreds of thousands of passengers were left stranded at UK airports last month after the police said they had foiled a plot to blow up airliners.

Flights were grounded and security stepped up at airports across the UK - particularly in London - as the threat level was raised to critical.

But despite the disruptions caused to BA, the airline carried 3.15 million passengers last month compared with 3.1 million in August last year - an increase of 1.5%.

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