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ÿþBBC Learning English
Words in the News
22nd May 2009
BA's record losses
British Airways has announced record annual losses of more than six hundred million dollars.
This is the airline's worst performance since it was privatised in 1987. The company's chief
executive says he sees 'no signs of recovery anywhere'. Alex Ritson reports:
The figures from British Airways were expected to be bad - but not this bad. They are also in
sharp contrast to the airline's performance last year when it made more than a billion
dollars in profit.
The airline is blaming two factors: firstly, the cost of fuel which was at near record high at
this time last year, and secondly, the credit crunch which is affecting many airlines.
Even more ominous are the comments from BA's chief executive, Willie Walsh. He says this
is the harshest trading environment the company has ever faced and he can see no reasons
for things to improve in the near future.
Alex Ritson, BBC News
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2009
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Vocabulary and definitions
the figures from here, the financial state of, the accounting data about the
company's profits and losses
in sharp contrast to very different from
performance here, the way in which a company does its job that is
judged by its effectiveness (e.g. how big a profit the
company has made)
profit when someone (here, a business) gets more money from
what they do than they spend to be able to do it
at near record high almost the highest ever
ominous suggesting that something bad is likely to happen
the harshest trading the most difficult economic situation in which to conduct
environment business
faced had to cope with
More on this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8062844.stm
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2009/05/090522_witn_ba.shtml
Words in the news © British Broadcasting Corporation 2009
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bbclearningenglish.com
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