British Airways (BA) had increased its share of the market to and from South Africa by 4 percent, by introducing more flights at a time when the airline was cutting capacity on other routes, Ashley Cowen, its area general manager for Africa and Asia-Pacific, said last week reports Bussiness Report.

Cowen said BA's forecast that Cape Town would be the most popular long-haul destination this year seemed to be correct.

Although the slowdown in the global economy has not hit BA's South African routes to the same extent as it has others around the world, it has been slightly affected.

BA was achieving "fairly good passenger loads" on the increased number of services, but it had done so by reducing yields as a result of special offers to fill seats.

It had been helped by increased demand caused by the British and Irish Lions rugby tour and the Fifa Confederations Cup soccer tournament.

BA had been trying to get permission from the South African government to put on more flights to the country since 2003, to meet high inbound demand in particular.

"Thanks to the efforts of South African Tourism among others, a year or so ago the regulators adopted a more liberal stance. Unfortunately, by that time we were already faced with falling load factors and rising fuel costs. Despite this, after so many years of arguing for more services, we decided to take the opportunity to expand our Johannesburg schedule."

Cowen said the airline industry as a whole was in "the harshest trading environment we have ever faced".

BA had already started preparing for the downturn before it started to bite.

Management numbers had been cut and about 2 500 staff have left the company. There were no bonuses for management, no planned basic pay hikes and external spend had been reduced, Cowen said.

Source:www.busrep.co.za