British Airways posts More than Double Annual Profit

British Airways Plc, Europe's fourth-largest airline by market capitalization reported on Wednesday that its annual profit increased to more than double, owing to strong demand for transatlantic business travel. The company said it is expecting the fiscal year to be money-spinning and announced a 45 percent increase in annual profit, saying it would pay its first dividend since 2001.

Net income for fiscal year ended March 31 grew to 680 million pounds ($1.32 billion), or 58.6 pence a share, from 290 million pounds, or 25.2 pence a share.

Pretax profit came in at 883 million pounds, beating expectations of 877 million pounds, as polled by analysts. Revenue went up 3.1 percent to 8.75 billion pounds, just short of the consensus forecast.

The annual profit hike is attributed to cost-cutting and rising business-class seat sales that led to a 10 percent operating margin, the dividend payment and £35 million, or $68 million, which will be shared among staff as bonuses.

However, Chief Executive Willie Walsh said he would not claim his bonus in order to make amends for the troubled launch of T5, which reportedly cost upto 700,000 pounds.

Walsh said that there is no pressure on him to give up his bonus but he finds it inappropriate to accept it, after all the problems with the new Terminal 5 at the Heathrow airport, London.

T5 is used exclusively by BA and it had a disastrous opening in March when the airline lost thousands of pieces of baggage and cancelled hundreds of flights.

“We have let our customers down and I take responsibility for that,” said Walsh.

Although BA is hoping for a lucrative period ahead, the high fuel costs may pose some hindrance. The first quarter will be "particularly difficult," BA said, and the full year will also be "challenging."

But strong results for the year ended March 31 attests that the company is up to the challenge.

"We're going into this period in a strong position and we've got very strong cash performance within the business," Walsh said.

Shares of British Airways rose 5.8 percent on Friday. They have lost more than 20% since the start of the year.