Shares in British Airways jumped 5 per cent today as the airline said its first class and business seat sales had continued to a boom last month despite the cheaper seats at the rear of the plane emptying out.

The shares were up 19.5p at 438p in late afternoon trading.

Although the total number of flights and planes available in the fleet was up fractionally from a year ago, the number of passengers declined by 1.4 per cent.

The average number of seats filled per plane was down 1.4 points to 80.5 per cent from a year ago, driven by a 1.9 per cent fall in economy class. But there was a 1.4 per cent increase in the numbers in First Class and business or "Club Class".

The growth in premium passengers came on top of an 11.7 per cent increase a year earlier. The carrier recently relaunched its Club Class cabins with new interiors. But investor relations chief George Stinnes also said the airline was benefiting from the growing number of cross-border corporate deals

“The banking community is doing very well, and the corporate community is flying a lot too. The underlying demand for premium travel is good.”

The figures on a three month basis from April to June were worse, with only a 0.1 per cent increase in premium traffic and a 2.3 per cent fall in non-premium traffic.

BA said the market was broadly unchanged but that it was too early to tell whether the recent security tightening at UK airports following the attempted bombings at Glasgow airport and in London, which forced the evacuation of Heathrow, had hurt forward bookings.

Mr Stinnes said the Heathrow evacuation would cause problems for days. “The terminal being closed for 5 hours is an enormous disruption of processes,” he said.“There’s an impact on baggage. It’s very difficult to recover because Heathrow is so small.”

The weakening dollar against sterling would help costs, BA said, although it would harm revenue.

The fall in economy passengers, driven by growing fears over security and global warming, also hit budget airline Ryanair which today said it had carried 18 per cent more passengers in June as the number of available flights grew, but filled less of its capacity.

The total number of people using the airline rose to more than 4.3 million in June compared with 3.7 million in June 2006. In the 12 months to June 30, Ryanair carried 44.4 million passengers.

But each plane was only 85 per cent full on average in June compared with 87 percent the previous year.

Ryanair warned last month it expected profit growth to slow this year amid an expected drop in ticket prices and higher costs.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax