Business is steadily recovering

The UK's flag carrier said passenger traffic rose by 12.7% in March compared with the same month last year.

Market conditions remained unchanged, it said, with long-haul premium volumes still on the up while short-haul premium revenues continued to suffer.

Stiff competition from low-cost rivals has hit BA in recent times.

However, UK and European short-haul services carried 1.8% more passengers in March, and numbers on its long-haul destinations also rose.

Traffic to Africa and the Middle East rose by 28% and passenger numbers to Asia Pacific rose by 15%, while 13.2% more passengers flew on BA to the Americas.

The passenger load factor, which measures how full the airline's aircraft actually are, showed a 4.5 point increase to 74%, BA said.