London - British Airways (BA) Friday announced a 45-per-cent rise in pre-tax profits to 883 million pounds (1.76 billion dollars) in the past financial year but admitted that the results marked a "high point."The company said it was braced for a "challenging year" ahead due to rocketing oil prices, a climate of general economic uncertainty and the expected fall-out from the airline's troubled move to the new Terminal 5 (T5) at London's Heathrow airport.
Figures showed that the results did not reflect the full impact of the recent oil price hike as BA had been able to buy well over half of the year's fuel requirements at previously agreed prices of between 82 and 90 dollars a barrel.
"The good news for British Airways is that we are going into this challenging environment from the position of relative strength," chief executive Willie Walsh said.
However, the "outstanding results" for the year ending March 31 were likely to be the "high point certainly in the short term."
They triggered a bonus pool of 35 million pounds for the airline's 42,000 employees, and meant that shareholders would be paid a dividend for the first time since 2001.
Walsh, who has taken personal responsibility for the chaos that surrounded BA's move to T5 at the end of March, said he would forego a bonus due to him of an estimated 700,000 pounds.
"I thought it would be inappropriate that I be paid a bonus," he said in a BBC interview. But dismissing doubts about his future at the helm of BA, he said, "I will be here for another 10 years."
Walsh said the first quarter of the current financial year would be particularly difficult, with crude oil prices now double that of a year ago.
The airline forecast that revenue would rise by about 4 per cent in the current financial year but said fares may have to be raised to offset fuel costs.
BA said it spent 2.1 billion pounds on fuel during the past year, but estimated the bill to soar by 1 billion pounds this year.
Despite the doubling in the price of oil during the last financial year, fuel and oil costs were just 6.4 per cent higher, due to hedging operations and a weak dollar, BA said.
"Based on the current market price for oil of 120 dollars per barrel, our total fuel costs would rise by around 1 billion pounds this financial year," BA said.
Meanwhile, BA announced that it would launch an "OpenSkies" service from Paris to New York on June 19, following the groundbreaking deal between the US and the European Union which allows carriers to fly transatlantic routes from different countries for the first time.
