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Financial Analysis of British Airways

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Financial Analysis of British Airways
4. Analysis
4.1 Revenue
From the graph, "Overall Revenue Trend" in appendix C we can see that during the period
2001 – 2006 revenue 's have fallen by 8.2%, from £9,278m to £8,515m. Revenues fell for 3 consecutive years; at the end of 2004 revenues were £1,718m or 19% lower than in 2001.
The following years saw revenues rise £955m or 13% above this. Let us now consider these changes in more detail. British Airways earns revenue from 3 published sources: Passenger services, cargo services and ‘other, ' being mainly fuel surcharges.
Revenues fell their sharpest during y/e 31 Mar 2002, by 10.1% or £938m. The atrocities of the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11 hit the airline hard in the third quarter of trading. In addition there was a general economic downturn and ‘foot and mouth ' disease in the UK. These factors led to a reduction in passenger numbers of 10.0% or 4.5m (from 44.5m to 40.0m). Consequently passenger revenues made up 81.8% of the decrease. Decreases were experienced across all geographical regions except for ‘Africa, the Middle East and Indian
Sub-continent. ' Any falls in this area were offset by increasing traffic to the rapidly developing economies of Indian cities. The company also was experiencing increasing pressure from the
‘no-frills ' carriers. In his annual report statement the chief executive commented "Our shorthaul business must adapt to provide a strong competitive response to the no-frills carriers … and are now giving business travellers and holiday makers lower fares…" (Rod Eddington, May
2002)
During 2003 revenues fell again, this time by 7.8% or £652m. In his Q4 presentation to investors, Lord Marshall noted that this was a period of "unprecedented difficulty for an already weakened transport industry" (Lord Marshall, May 2003). In the first half of the year the company were still feeling the shock of September 11 together with an acceleration of the worldwide economic downturn. The threat and



Bibliography: Newspaper, Magazine and Industry Sources Various Journalists writing for the Lex Column (2006), British Airways, Various Journalists writing for the Lex Column (2002), British Airways, http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=020814003111&query=british+airways&vsc_appI Done, Kevin (2004), British Airways imposes fare surcharge as oil price rises, The Financial Times, 12 May 2004 Done, Kevin (2005), British Airways comes out of Intensive Care, The Financial Times, 14 May 2005 Done, Kevin (2006), British airways shows it 's business class, The Financial Times, 4 Feb 2006 Concil, Anthony, US$7.4 Billion Losses for Global Aviation in 2005 -Skyrocketing Oil Prices BPP Professional Education (2005), Success in Your Research and Analysis Project, London BPP Professional Education (2004), Financial Management & Control, 4th Edition, London BPP Professional Education (2005), Financial Reporting, 5th Edition, London Oxford University Press (1996), Dictionary of Business, 2nd Edition, Oxford Elliot & Elliot (2000), Financial Accounting & Reporting, 4th Edition, London, Prentice Hall Romesh Vaitilingam (2001), The Financial Times Guide to Using the Financial Pages, 4th

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