BA braces for impact on transatlantic routes

No one is quite sure just yet how the ongoing financial crisis in the U.S. and the U.K. will play out for business travel, but there were some signs last week that it is not likely to be good. American Express was due to come out with a major forecast of business travel last week, but it decided to put off the predictions until its prognosticators can factor in the impact of the Wall Street meltdown. And in an interview with Bloomberg TV, British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh said he believes the airline will lose some traffic in its first and business class cabins on transatlantic routes – although he said BA hasn’t started seeing that yet. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the impact of a weakening economic environment, combined with the credit crunch, will play through to the premium cabin,” he said. “It has to have an impact at some point.” He noted that among the airline’s 50 largest corporate customers, 13 are financial companies or banks.