Peter Woodman

British Airways' passenger numbers dipped last month as the airline dealt with the shambolic opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5.

BA carried 2.59 million passengers in April 2008 - a 7.9% fall on the April 2007 total.

The biggest dip was in UK and European traffic, which fell 8.5% in April 2008.

BA said Terminal 5 had had "some impact" on the April 2008 figures "particularly on transfer traffic" and because of "the operational problems in the early part of the month".

BA also reported that its planes flew 71.6% full last month - a dip of 5.1% on April 2007.

The airline said comparisons with April 2007 were complicated in that Easter was very early this year - with Easter Sunday on March 23 - and that school holidays had been staggered this year.

BA and its passengers endured a nightmare start to Terminal 5 flight operations on March 27, with dozens of flights cancelled, baggage systems failing and long queues building at the £4.3bn facility.

It was some days before BA was able to run a full service at Terminal 5 and the planned April 30 transfer of nearly all the airline's Heathrow long-haul operation to T5 was postponed to June.

BA said yesterday: "Operations in Terminal 5 continue to show improvement. A normal schedule has operated for more than three weeks and more than 1.4 million passengers have travelled through the terminal.

"Focus remains on ensuring the stability of the baggage system so that performance levels can be sustained. Operations in Terminals 1 and 4 are working well."

Yesterday's traffic figures come on the eve of an appearance before the House of Commons Transport Committee by BA chief executive Willie Walsh, who will answer questions about T5 from MPs.

The heads of Heathrow operator BAA will also appear.

Meanwhile, low-fare Irish carrier Ryanair announced yesterday that it had carried 4.72 million passengers in April 2008 - a 15% rise on April 2007.

The no-frills airline's planes were 79% full last month compared with 83% in April 2007.