BA's owner IAG says eurozone woes hitting growth plans

The owner of British Airways, International Airlines Group (IAG), has said that the economic woes in the eurozone have hit its expansion plans.

Willie Walsh, IAG's chief executive, said its interest in buying Portugal's biggest airline TAP had "significantly waned" due to the situation in Europe.

Meanwhile, UK airport operator BAA said the eurozone problems were affecting passenger numbers at London Heathrow.

It has seen a big fall in passengers flying to countries such as Greece.

Cargo falls
IAG had previously expressed an interest in buying TAP to boost its long-haul operations, specifically to Brazil.

However, Mr Walsh told reporters during a visit to Beijing: "We aren't looking at any acquisitions at the moment.

"I don't see there's anything likely to be available in the short term that would be of interest to us."

The latest monthly figures from BAA showed that May's passenger numbers between Heathrow and Greece were down 11.3% from a year earlier.

Numbers to and from Portugal were 11.4% lower, while Italy was down 9.2%.

BAA added that cargo flights were also affected.

In addition to Heathrow, BAA owns Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.

Passenger numbers across the five airports totalled 9.3 million in May, down just 0.1% from a year ago.

BBC

       Selman TENGÜZ

   Wednesday, May 18, 2011

       Talip BÖLÜKBAŞI

   Thursday, May 19, 2011