British Airways saw its loss widen in the first quarter of 2010-2011, under the combined effects of volcanic ash cloud and a strike, which did not deter the British airline reaffirmed its forecast of a pretax profit in equilibrium.
At about 8:00 GMT, the group, which saw its value melt a billion pounds over the past two years, advancing 3.15% to 222.8 pence while the index values comprising the European air transport and travel increased by only 0.23%.
The taxable loss worsened from 10.8% during the period April to June, to 164 million pounds (196 million) while sales fell 2.3% to 1.93 billion euros.
However, the performance of British Airways – a measure of revenue generated per passenger and per mile traveled – has jumped from 12.7% due to lower costs.
"Although some economic experts stress the risk of a return to recession, the strong economic recovery continues and in this context, we reaffirm our goal to be in equilibrium before income taxes of all exercise, "said Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways, said in a statement.
Tuesday, Air France-KLM also confirmed targeting a return to balance operational throughout the period 2010-2011, while voicing cautious about changing conditions in the second half.
Like all European airlines, British Airways was strongly affected in April by the appearance of a cloud of ash into the skies of Europe caused by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjöll. Air traffic was interrupted for several days in a row because of this phenomenon.
British Airways has estimated that 100 million cost of volcanic ash on its activity.
The airline also has also seen a series of strikes in the first quarter of 2010-2011, which cost some 150 million pounds.
BA, which has just received approval from the European Commission to merge with Iberia, said its passenger revenues had fallen by 3.4% over this period.Without the volcano and strikes, they would have increased by 11%.