BA’s Middle East flights well placed to survive global downturn

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STARRS: BA well positioned to weather the storm.

British Airways' review of capacity, costs and its network are not likely to impact its Middle East routes, the airline's Middle East commercial manager Paul Starrs has confirmed.

Even though the airline has described the coming year as challenging due to fuel price hikes and an uncertain global economic outlook, the carrier, which recently reported a year-on-year increase in pre-tax profits, would "weather the storm" said Starrs.

"BA is well positioned going into a recession because it has a lot of cash on its books," he said.

"We see this as an opportunity, particularly for what I see as shorter long-haul destinations such as the Middle East.

"There is more opportunity for these routes and less for longer haul unprofitable routes. When you fly aircraft over long distances, it is difficult to make a profit - we are talking 12 or 13 hours' flight time."

BA saw pre-tax profits rise to £883 million (US $1.7 billion) from £611 million ($1.2 billion).

However, BA CEO Willie Walsh was quick to turn down his £600,000 ($1.2 million) bonus in the wake of the disastrous Heathrow Terminal 5.

He revealed that BA would start moving long-haul services operated by its Boeing 747 aircraft to the terminal this month under phase two of its T5 transition plans.

This rules out all Middle East routes - they will move to T5 in phase three or four, the timings of which have not been announced.

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