British Airways Blames Reduced Traffic On Computer Glitch By Leonard Lee, Newsbytes MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 04 May 2001, 1:13 PM CST

British Airways said that a recent computer glitch contributed to a 20 million British pounds drop in revenues, and will continue to impact revenues for weeks to come.

A problem with the airline's mainframe computers handling reservations in March affected sales, revenue management and check-in systems. Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled as a result.

Passenger traffic for March dropped 8.9 percent compared with the previous year, which the airline blamed on a combination of computer problems, the slowing of the U.S. economy, and concerns about foot-and-mouth disease.

Because the computer problems created difficulties in booking future reservations, the airline expects its revenues to be depressed for at least three months. "The computer outage," the company said in a statement, "is also expected to have some impact on the results for April and May since selling and revenue management systems were affected over a 10-day period."

Like most major airlines, British Airways uses sophisticated yield-management programs to create an optimal mix of discount and full-fare passengers for each flight, maximizing revenues.

Undaunted by the recent problems, the airline has begun trials of a portable check-in system it calls the Xybernaut "queue buster." Check-in agents at London's Heathrow Airport have been equipped with portable computer devices that enable them to roam the terminal and carry out on-the-spot check-in of passengers.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com

13:13 CST Reposted 15:05 CST

http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/165345.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 04, 2001