Bloomberg — British Airways Plc, Europe’s third-biggest airline, said traffic fell in February as the recession damped demand for corporate travel and heavy snow closed U.K. airports.

Traffic, or the number of passengers multiplied by the distance flown, dropped by 8.3 percent last month from a year earlier, with bookings sliding 20 percent in first- and business-class sections and 5.5 percent for economy seats, the London-based airline said today in a statement. Passenger numbers fell 10 percent to 2.17 million.

British Airways is forecasting an operating loss of 150 million pounds ($211 million) this fiscal year and will scrap executive bonuses as demand for travel wanes. Airlines lost as much as $8 billion last year, the International Air Transport Association said March 2. The traffic slump at BA contrasts with growth in passenger numbers at Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest discount carrier.

“Market conditions remain challenging but broadly in line with previous expectations,” British Airways said. “A significant number of cancellations in the first week of the month due to heavy snowfall” contributed to the traffic decline. British Airways rose 8.9 pence, or 7 percent, to 135.4 pence in London trading.

The stock has dropped 25 percent this year, cutting the carrier’s market value to 1.56 billion pounds.

Leap-Year Effect

The load factor, or seat-occupancy rate, rose 0.5 of a percentage point to 72 percent, British Airways said.

“Premium traffic will be under pressure for some time,” Chief Financial Officer Keith Williams said in the company’s weekly newsletter, published Feb. 26. “In the financial services sector and wider economy, we are still seeing more job losses than job creation at the moment.”

The heaviest snow storms in the U.K. in 18 years forced British Airways to cancel flights at Heathrow, its biggest base, at the beginning of February. The storms delayed flights at London Gatwick airport and closed London City airport, which is near the city’s financial districts. February this year was also one day shorter because 2008 was a leap year.

Dublin-based Ryanair said today that it flew 7 percent more passengers in February after adding planes and routes. The airline carried 4.1 million travelers, compared with 3.8 million a year earlier, while the load factor rose 3 percentage points to 78 percent, the company said in a statement today.

source: Bloomberg