From today's Scotsman
BA: still up in the air BUSINESS COMMENT
All very well for British Airways to make of noises about relaunching Concorde in the wake of last year’s Paris crash.
But as far as investors are concerned, the more pertinent event has been the fall in the group’s share price below 300p (in fact down another 6p to 291p yesterday) from 470p at the beginning of this year as profitability heads for its own kind of crash.
The problems the airline is facing were underlined by figures showing traffic numbers fell faster than capacity in the year to August. The 1,800 job cuts announced on Tuesday will help reduce the cost base, but BA’s short-haul operations are now looking like a financial luxury.
With long-haul also coming under pressure, chief executive Rod Eddington has major problems on his hands.
True, in such circumstances, the £20-£40 million profit contributed by Concorde previously will be very helpful if restored at the same level.
But it may well not be enough to stop the group sliding into the red for the year to next March.