BRITISH Airways passengers will suffer the double blow of a fares increase and the cancellation of one in ten of the airline's Scottish flights in the face of the "worst trading environment" in aviation history.
The airline has followed Ryanair and EasyJet in announcing cuts as it grapples with soaring fuel costs and reduced passenger demand.
BA's pre-tax profits for April to June plunged by nearly 90 per cent compared to the same period last year.
It
said fare increases were inevitable because of a 49 per cent rise in fuel costs.
Nearly 500 of some 5,000 flights on routes between Scotland and Heathrow and Gatwick will go between October and March, among a 3 per cent cut across BA's global network.
Further reductions on Scottish routes to London City airport have not been ruled out.
However, there was anger that the cuts would create confusion because different flights have been removed from the timetable on different days throughout the winter.
This means regular passengers taking the same flights each time they travel may have to contend with a different service pattern every week.
Nearly one quarter of flights between Glasgow and Gatwick will be axed and more than one in ten of those from Edinburgh.
There will also be cuts on all three Scottish routes to Heathrow, Aberdeen taking the greatest cut, with 6.5 per cent of services removed.
There will be a 6 per cent reduction from Glasgow – where the 6am flight has already been axed from October – and nearly 3 per cent from Edinburgh.
The cuts will further shrink BA's presence in Scotland, which will be reduced to the London routes from October when it ends its tie-up with Loganair for 23 services in the Highlands and Islands. The routes will be taken over by Flybe, which last year also bought all of BA's 15 non-London services from Scotland.
The cuts were announced as BA reported an 88 per cent reduction in quarterly pre-tax profits from £298 million to £37 million. Willie Walsh, its chief executive, said: "We are in the worst trading environment the industry has ever faced. The combination of unprecedented oil prices, economic slowdown and weaker consumer confidence has led to substantially lower first quarter profits."
Fuel now accounts for nearly one-third of BA's costs, and is expected to top £3 billion this year. However, Mr Walsh said it was "impossible to say" how much fares would have to go up.
He said: "The main driver behind fare increases will be the high oil price. It's very clear that the industry is going to have to reflect this high price."
BA said it was spreading the cuts across the winter timetable rather than axing any specific flights to retain its valuable landing slots at London's airports. These are worth tens of millions of pounds each because of intense demand, but must be used at least 80 per cent of the time.
The Scottish Chambers of Commerce said the way the cuts were being introduced just compounded the misery for regular travellers. Liz Cameron, its chief executive, said: "We have already raised concerns that Scotland's flights to London's airports seem expendable ahead of all others.
"It's worrying that BA appears to be pulling in its horns with a bit of jiggery pokery. These complex proposals seem to guarantee their landing slots without guaranteeing passengers the present level of service."
Bmi, BA's main rival on Scotland-Heathrow routes is still reviewing its winter schedule. Mr Walsh said BA's terminal five at Heathrow was now "performing well" after its disastrous opening in March..
BA revealed yesterday that nearly one-quarter of the terminal's passengers suffered mislaid luggage on the first day, which has now been reduced to nearly none. However, passengers are still waiting an average of 18 minutes for their bags after their flight arrived.
Mr Walsh said he was confident that BA's merger with Spanish airline Iberia would be approved. However, he said the tie-up to create the world's third largest carrier in revenue – after Air France-KLM and Lufthansa-Swiss – would take months to complete.
Scotland's business hopes will be grounded by airline's decision to axe flightsREDUCING air links between Scotland and key markets in the rest of the UK will damage competitiveness and domestic tourism.
I appreciate we face a tough trading year, but will making it more difficult to do business south of the Border or making Scotland a less attractive, less convenient destination for UK tourists make conditions better or worse?
Scotland's poor transport links with the rest of the UK are already putting us at a competitive disadvantage.
How can we compete for contracts with companies based in, say, London, if we can't get to a meeting without leaving the night before?
Not only that, given that many flights to international destinations route through London, it will take longer and cost more to do business in Europe and beyond.
Reducing the frequency of flights is also bound to have a knock-on effect on the price we'll pay for those flights that remain available.
It's a lose-lose situation – fewer flights at higher cost.
Perhaps it's now time for government at all levels to safeguard Scotland's long-term transport and business links and make a commitment to a proper high-speed rail link between Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Directly employing 200,000 people and worth more than £4 billion a year, tourism is still one of Scotland's biggest industries.
But when 80 per cent of tourists come to Scotland from within the UK, fewer domestic flights will make us a less attractive destination and will make life even more difficult for small tourism businesses.
• Colin Borland is Scottish press and parliamentary officer for the Federation of Small Businesses
The full article contains 980 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
