British Airways (BA) has reported a 21% increase in pre-tax profit over the previous year by selling more expensive tickets to more passengers in the year to 31st March. Pre-tax profit was £620m on sales of £8.52bn.

The company said that its short-haul operation is back in profit after 10 years, attributing the recovery to cost cutting and more efficient working practices.

And confronted with increasing competition, BA has increased the routes it flies and raised ticket prices.

“There are still issues at BA with its £2.07bn pension deficit and chief executive Willie Walsh has said that he will address this problem robustly in the near future,” said aviation analyst George Dobie.

“However, these are good results and management has delivered on its promises to reward shareholders with improvements,” he concluded.