From today's Telegraph:
Drastic airline action pays off
By Thomas Harding
(Filed: 20/10/2001)
BRITISH airlines have taken drastic measures to survive the crisis brought on by plummeting passenger numbers.
An overnight collapse in confidence by American travellers left those airlines who were dependent on the lucrative transatlantic route facing heavy losses. On average, travel between America and Britain has dropped by a quarter but for some the damage has been greater.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are coping with 25 to 30 per cent drops and have had to adopt new strategies to deal with the crisis.
Virgin has changed the capacity of its transatlantic planes, replacing the 450-seat Boeing 747s with the 250-seat Airbus A340s.
A Virgin spokesman said: "We have very quickly stabilised the situation. A strong showing on our Johannesburg and Hong Kong routes meant that we can transfer the 747s to them.
"But looking forward the situation is uncertain. We would normally expect high bookings for next summer to places like Florida but that hasn't happened yet. People are waiting to see what happens."
British Airways lost £48 million in revenue in the week of the terrorist attacks. The company announced 7,200 job losses and dropped 190 scheduled services. It had to contend with 230,000 fewer travellers crossing the Atlantic last month compared with September 2000.
But BA's "Kids Go Free" promotion, which led to 8,500 ticket sales to European destinations on Saturday last week, and the return of Concorde next month have provided grounds for optimism.
A BA spokesman said: "In the past week we have sold 3,000 Concorde tickets which is fantastic. BA is now in a sound position in spite of the immediate revenue pressures, having responded quickly with a series of measures to reduce the scale of our business."
Airline industry insiders believe that the number of national carriers in Europe will shrink eventually to six or seven.