British Airways and Ryanair both saw significant drops in air traffic during the month of March. They both said that their planes were less full then normal for March.

BA have had a drop of 7% in air traffic for March, this includes a 13% fall on premium traffic and 6% on standard traffic. BA who carried over 2.6 million passengers in March now have a load factor of 72.7%, a drop from 79.1%. Load factor is measured by the amount of passengers to available seats.

Head of investor relations, George Stinnes said with the Easter holiday coming up many families go away, this has been a factor towards the drop in premium traffic. But it is not just because of Easter, BA has seen a decrease over the entire industry.

One of them other companies that have had a slump in air traffic is Ryanair, even though they managed an increase of 5% air traffic in March, which allowed them to fly 4.7 million passengers, they saw a fall of 2% on their load factor, from 79% to 77%. The Dublin based company blames the Easter shift for this.

British Airways are set to announce up to £150 million operation loss, however this does not include the £75 million for severance costs and the £20 million lost due to the heavy snow in February.

Stinnes says ‘I don't think anything has changed in terms of our confidence that this thing is going to proceed. The important thing is to get it right and not go rushing off and do it wrong’