For the first time ever we achieved an operating margin of 10 per cent in 2007/08.
Continuing tight control of our costs played a crucial role in hitting this important target and it puts us in a far stronger position than many of our competitors to cope with increasingly tough economic conditions in the year ahead.
Our profit before tax for the year was £883 million, up £272 million, on revenue of £8,753 million, an increase of 3.1 per cent.
Our industry’s most pressing corporate responsibility is to reduce the carbon emissions from its operations.
The recent agreement between the International Air Transport Association and the airlines to a joint commitment on this is an important step forward for our industry.
We continue to be leaders in this field. We are the only airline to have taken part in an emissions trading scheme. Since 1990 we have cut our emissions by 28 per cent and in 2007/08 set ourselves the new target of cutting our CO2 by a further 25 per cent by 2025.
We have completed the fit out of our new award-winning Club World cabin on our Boeing 747 fleet and have started putting it on our Boeing 777 fleet.
It has already won design awards and set new benchmarks for comfort in the air.
On the ground we continue to improve our online booking engine britishairways.com and customers can now buy online, check-in online and email messages on britishairways.com in 11 languages.
We have placed an $8 billion order for new aircraft and our design teams have begun work on defining the interiors of these aircraft.