British Airways has had its worst year yet, recording a loss of £200m before tax and one-off charges for the year to March 2002.
"We have had to take a series of tough decisions this year to protect BA for the long term". Rod Eddington, BA
But while the numbers are dismal considering BA's record, they are much better than many investors had feared.
Some forecasts had had BA losing more than £400m, following a profit of £186m in the previous 12 months.
For the fourth quarter from January to March 2002, figures showed the beginnings of a turnaround, with aircraft flying slightly more full than the year before and costs down 12.8%.
"We have had to take a series of tough decisions this year to protect BA for the long term," said chief executive Rod Eddington.
Looking ahead, he admitted the market was going to remain weak for a while.
But he insisted that the quarterly improvement - down to the "dedication of staff in delivering cost efficiencies and high standards of customer service" - would carry the firm through the difficult times.
Annus horribilis
The company has had a difficult year, as the aftermath of 11 September saw passenger numbers slump while its cut-price, no-frills competitors cleaned up.
The threat from the likes of Easyjet - which has now bought BA's former subsidiary Go - has led the company to rework its fare structure.
It has also cut back its fleet and switched some operations from Gatwick to Heathrow.
But even before the attacks on New York City and Washington DC, BA was having a hard time of it, and the poor performance throughout the year has led to plans for 13,500 redundancies.
Also on the agenda is a cost-cutting programme aimed at slicing £670m off the airline's spending by 2004.
But there are signs that it is pulling round, with passenger revenue kilometres - a key measure of how much money is coming in - down 4.3% in the fourth quarter despite an 11% drop in overall capacity.
Passenger revenue kilometres measures how much money is made out of passengers, depending on how far they travel.