After incurring continuing losses for two years, British Airways posted good half-yearly profits, thanks to improving economic conditions and increase in the numbers of passengers in both business and economy class.

For the six months to the end of September, BA posted pre-tax profits worth £158m, as compared to the last year’s losses of £292m. Its operating profits in the same period reached £370m, in comparison to losses worth £17m faced last year. The Company’s operating margin stood at 14.7%, above the targeted threshold of 10%. The profits of BA have also surpassed the expectations of analysts.

The revenue per seat of BA increased 17.2% year-on-year. BA’s total revenues surged 8.4% to £4.45bn and those of Cargo climbed 39.4%.

The robust performance experienced by BA has been contributed by rise in the ticket prices, elimination of discounts and increase in economy and business class passengers. The rise in the passengers shows the signs of economic recovery.

“The economic outlook remains uncertain but the airline's key performance indicators are looking an awful lot better than they were a year ago", said Willie Walsh, BA Chief Executive.

Mr. Walsh is contemplating over plans to increase the volume of passengers by expanding the capacity to 4-5% from next summer with the introduction of Caribbean flights and new services to San Diego and Tokyo Haneda.

Tony Shepard, a Charles Stanley analyst is expecting BA’s full-year profits to be around £500m.