British Airways has reported a fall in passenger traffic in January and warned the economic and political environment remained challenging.
The airline said the number of passengers carried rose from 2.74 million in January compared with 2.69 million carried in the same month in 2002.
But traffic figures, a key measure of how much revenue BA generates for each passenger per kilometre travelled, fell by 1.8 per cent in January.
For the financial year to date - starting in April - BA said passenger numbers were down 2.9 per cent at 32.7 million while traffic is down 4.3 per cent.
The fall in traffic figures was worst in BA's Asia-Pacific region where only 128,00 passengers were carried against 159,000 for the same month last year, a 19.7 per cent decline. Traffic on the Asia-Pacific routes fell by 19.6 per cent.
The decline was explained by the end of joint flight operations with Australian flag-carrier Qantas on routes to Singapore, Bangkok and Sydney.
Overall load factor - a measure of how full each aircraft is - improved by 0.9 points to 63.4 per cent. For passengers the load factor rose by 0.6 points to 69.2 per cent.
Outlining strategic developments BA announced its shorthaul schedule for summer 2003 which includes new routes from London Gatwick and Manchester airports and increased services on profitable routes to Europe.
PA