BA passenger numbers are down 5%

British Airways carried almost 5% fewer passengers last month than in June 2008

British Airways carried almost 5% fewer passengers last month than in June 2008, the airline has announced.

A total of 2.93 million people travelled on BA scheduled services in June 2009 - a 4.9% fall on the same month last year.

Asia Pacific traffic (down 16.8%) represented the biggest fall, although Africa and Middle East passenger numbers were up 0.9%.

BA planes flew 79.6% full last month compared with 81.4% in June 2008.

The airline had a 14.9% fall last month in premium traffic (passengers who fly business class or first class), while economy class numbers were down 1.3%.

BA said: "Market conditions continue to be very challenging with trading at levels well below last year. However on an underlying basis both premium and non-premium volumes and seat factors have now been stable for more than three months."

Meanwhile, fresh moves to reach agreement on cost cutting at the firm, including thousands of job losses, are to be made next week. The airline set a deadline of last Tuesday to agree with unions cuts in jobs, a pay freeze and other changes. But no deal was reached despite weeks of talks between the two sides.

The conciliation service Acas announced that it would be convening a meeting next Wednesday so that negotiations could continue.

Thousands of BA workers will hold a mass meeting on Monday to hear details of the negotiations from union leaders.