 BRITISH CALEDONIAN GROUP ANNOUNCES BIG LOSSES
<British Caledonian Group>, Britain's
second largest airline, has announced a 19.3 mln stg pretax
loss for the financial year ending last October, compared with
a record pre-tax profit of 21.7 mln stg in 1985, chairman Sir
Adam Thomson told reporters.
    A decline in U.S. Transatlantic traffic following terrorist
attacks in Europe, the U.S. Bombing of the Libya, the Chernobyl
disaster and a slump in the oil industry which affected Middle
East traffic were the main causes of the loss, Thomson said.
    He said the poor results were caused by "a range of
exceptional circumstances wholly outside our direct control" and
predicted a return to profitability this year.
    Last year, the airline was forced to axe 1,000 jobs, sell
some of its assets and cut the number of its flights across the
Atlantic and to the Middle East following the fall in business
.
 REUTER
