British Airways will issue its second profit warning of the year next month due to the record oil price that has already sent several carriers into bankruptcy and forced others to raise fares to deal with the unprecedented rise in costs, analysts said.

At BA's investor day last month, the chief executive, Willie Walsh, abandoned his long-trumpeted target of achieving a 10 per cent operating margin and predicted that it would fall to 7 per cent next year. Analysts said yesterday that since then the carrier has been "actively guiding" their expectations lower before its annual results on 16 May and that the sustained high oil price would mean its margin would shrink to as little as 3 per cent next year. ... Read full article