British Airways would welcome competition on its Bermuda-London route, said an executive of the airline yesterday after emerging from talks with Premier Ewart Brown.

Simon Talling-Smith, BA's executive vice-president Americas, said the Premier's stated wish to see a low-cost airline compete on the Bermuda-UK route had come up in conversation during their meeting yesterday.

Canadian airline Zoom went bankrupt in August last year, having competed with BA on the London route for about a year.

"We talked about competition," Mr. Talling-Smith said of his talks with Dr. Brown, who is the Minister of Transport and Tourism. "He said he would welcome competitors coming onto the market. I agreed with him. BA is up for competition — that is what has made us a stronger airline.

"Zoom was additive to the number of visitors coming to Bermuda. While the competition would have made some difference to BA's traffic, BA has traditionally competed most effectively at the premium end of the market.

"Bermuda is a premium destination. So Bermuda and BA go well together."

The talks also touched on joint marketing possibilities and the importance of the golf-and-spa winter season.

British Airways — like all major carriers — is losing money and looking to cut costs. This week, it announced a cut of 1,000 UK jobs, all achieved by voluntary redundancy, plus a cut in the hours of a further 3,000 staff.

One change arising from that will be the reduction of cabin crew on long-haul flights out of Heathrow from 15 to 14. Mr. Talling-Smith, however, said there would be no changes for the Bermuda flights out of Gatwick.

"Bermuda has always been a good route for us," Mr. Talling-Smith said. "Our focus is on making sure that it stays that way.

"We are proud of the fact we have been flying to Bermuda for 72 years, but we have to look forward to the future. It's important for Bermuda that the route is profitable for BA. That will protect the route.

"Over the past few months, we've seen a slight growth in traffic, more for leisure travellers than for business. Business is still down. Where there is growth it comes at a price. We are charging about 10 percent less than we were last year."

Mr. Talling-Smith's New York-based job involves taking responsibility for the airline's operations in the US, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Bermuda.

The impact of high fuel prices and falling passenger numbers during a global recession has presented all airlines with major challenges.

"The airline industry is tough and these are the toughest of times," Mr. Talling-Smith said. "There's a lot of talk about green shoots, but we aren't seeing that."

Oil prices rocketed to $147 a barrel in July last year and although they have eased from there to around $70, fuel is still a major cost factor for struggling airlines.

"If you look back a few years to 2001, oil was trading at around $20 — now it's around $69," Mr. Talling-Smith said. "That's a huge increase. Last year, one third of our costs were fuel.

"This year, I think prices lower than $60 were generated by a lack of confidence in the economy. BA's expectation is that the price of oil will increase past $70." While economy passenger numbers had dropped slightly, the big problem for BA is the number of business class travellers is down by 15 percent.

The airline has seen a trend of more leisure than business travellers in the business class section.

Between April and September, BA flew 2.6 percent fewer passengers than it did in the same period last year — but the Americas region held up well, seeing passenger numbers rise by 0.6 percent.