Credit crunch wasn’t bad enough, the oil price is now piling on the agony

No wonder the British Airways share price fell to a new four-year low yesterday. Less than two months ago, the finance director Keith Williams warned that his operating profits would be completely wiped out by an oil price of just under $120 a barrel, and that, if sustained, such a price would lead to fundamental change across the airline industry as a whole.

Back then, it seemed quite unlikely prices would reach such an elevated level, yet here we are, less than two months later, with the price of oil at a point which apparently spells financial Armageddon even for relatively healthy airlines such as BA.

Independent