Slowing consumer spending, the botched move to Terminal 5 at Heathrow and the early Easter combined to hit British Airways' passenger traffic last month, sending the shares down almost 4pc.

They slipped 9¾ to 239p as BA said economy-class traffic fell by 8.8pc in April, against the same time last year, worse than analysts expected.

First- and business-class traffic rose 3.4pc, but the planes were only 71.6pc full - down 5.1 percentage points on April 2007.

BA admitted long-haul non-premium traffic was "showing significant weakness", while "some impact was felt, particularly on transfer traffic, from the move to Terminal 5".

Chris Avery, an analyst at JP Morgan, said: "Even allowing for Easter, a non-premium drop of 8.8pc is pretty chunky." He cut 2009 operating profits forecasts from £461m to £330m on the assumption oil stays at least $110 a barrel. He forecasts £860m profits this year.

Low-fare airline Ryanair said passengers increased 15pc last month to 4.72m.