British Airways, the 3^rd biggest carrier in Europe, said that their traffic declined by 5.9% during last month, with the economic slowdown and credit crisis hurting business travel. The number of passengers transported multiplied by the distance they have flown, which is traffic, dropped by 11% for first-class and business-class travelers (premium passengers) in comparison to last year. The carrier also said yesterday that their economy traffic declined by 4.8%, while their load factor fell by 2.2% as well.

A major part of the premium business for British Airways comes from the banking sector. Nine out of 20 of their biggest corporate customers are believed to be investment banks, such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, and HSBC. Until Lehman Brothers collapsed in September, they were a key customer of the airline as well.

The carrier’s strategy to keep fares high has been thought to have made a contribution to the decline in premium passenger numbers, as many of their competitors have cut their fares. The company is also trying to battle the falling demand with seeking mergers and cutting management jobs. British Airways just announced on Wednesday that they were in talks with Australian carrier Qantas about merging in order to reduce costs, and they are also in talks with Spanish airline Iberia.

Plus, last month, the International Air Transport Association said that worldwide air travel dropped for the second month in a row as of October. They predicted that the industry will lose more than $5.2 billion (combined) during the year.

Find out more about the carrier at: www.britishairways.com