BA slashes European fares

British Airways today launched its onslaught on budget airlines by cutting short-haul fares by up to 80 per cent - but was immediately accused of not cutting enough.

The airline is offering return fares of £69 to Paris and Amsterdam and £99 to destinations including Nice, Bologna and Marseille.

Despite the reductions of between 25 and 80 per cent, however, budget airlines said the offer was not a threat to their business.

They claim that their fares are still the cheapest on offer.

EasyJet said that the number of seats available was a "drop in the ocean" and that it was not concerned it might lose customers.

A spokesman said: "We offer around 10 per cent of seats on each flight at the lowest quoted fare.

"If you work out how many seats BA are offering altogether, it means about four per flight are at these low prices. If it were a political party it would be a scandal. They cannot be seen as a big threat at all."

The spokesman pointed out that its cheapest fares were still up to half the cost of BA's new fares.

However, BA said that it was not attempting to undercut the budget airlines and was simply offering the quality of a scheduled airline for less.

A spokeswoman said: "This is less stress than no-frills and at a very good price. You get much more from BA, such as flying from mainstream airports, getting a free meal and drinks and allowing customers to pre-book seats with more legroom, etc, without having to pay a premium.

"Also, it is good to remember that if for any reason a flight is cancelled we will make sure passengers are on another flight as soon as possible. I am not sure that can be said for budget airlines."

British Airways is cutting prices on 71 short-haul routes across Europe and is scrapping the Saturday night restrictions which forced passengers to stay for a weekend to get cheap deals.

About 50,000 cheap seats will be made available each month. As with budget airlines, the best fares are likely to sell out quickly and so travellers are being urged to book months in advance in order to benefit from the lowest prices.

The move comes four months after BA launched its Future Size And Shape review in response to flagging ticket sales. A number of routes were axed and the company decided to concentrate on its core market of business fliers and short-haul passengers.

The company said that tickets would be available online from Thursday, or for £10 extra through agents.

Martin George, BA's director of marketing, said: "We are offering full service at no-frills prices for air travellers. As we said in our Future Size And Shape announcement in February, we are adopting what the no-frills carriers do well - online bookings, high aircraft utilisation and pricing simplicity."

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