I have just finished trawling through the recently published BA Annual Report looking for interesting data.

Frankly compared to earlier years it was a little disappointing. But under the heading 'Notes to the accounts. 15. Capital expenditure commitments' on page 100 I did find a piece of information that I do not recall seeing in their earlier reports. This is the outstanding cost of the aircraft that BA had on order as at 31 March this year.

It reads:

"The outstanding commitments include £5,162 million for the acquisition of four Boeing 777 aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2009, 19 Airbus A320 family (from 2008 to 2010), 12 A380 aircraft (from 2012 to 2014) and 24 Boeing 787 aircraft (from 2012 to 2015)."

Now in theory if this data is published in future years it might be possible to reasonably accurately calculate not the widely known official list price of these aircraft but what an airline like BA actually pays for them. This future calculation will be easier if other a-netters can discover similar data published by other airlines for comparative purposes.

Obviously the accuracy of such calculations does depend on the mix of deliveries in any one year. For example with A320 family aircraft due for delivery this financial year (including the two 318s for the LCY-JFK service) the calculation on their actual cost to BA will be made much more difficult if any of the four 777s on order are delivered before the end of the BA financial year on 31 March next year. It will also depend on new orders placed. So if a further order for long haul aircraft is placed this year the figure of £5,162 million will be much higher in next year's report.

The only other point of real interest (at least to me!) that I noted that have not already been published elsewhere is that BA derives more of its income from sales outside the UK than from within it. Sales totaled £8,753 million in 2007-08. Of these sales:

49.8 per cent (£4,357 million) were derived in the UK
13.9 per cent (£1,219 million) were derived in Continental Europe
19.4 per cent (£1,697 million) were derived in the Americas
9.4 per cent (£821 million) were derived in Africa, Middle East and Indian sub-continent
7.5 per cent (£659 million) were derived in the Far East and Australasia

Note that this is not a new situation with UK sales representing an even smaller proportion of 49.0 per cent of all sales in 2006-07. But I had not noticed this before and have never seen anyone else mention it.

Although not new news I thought it interesting that the conversations that BA are having with CO and AA about future cooperation are considered important enough to appear as a note in the BA Annual Report. Also included is a statement from Willie Walsh that says ". . . and you can expect us to enter new code sharing arrangements with the Spanish carrier [Iberia] beyond those we already have.'

Finally there has been suggestions here on a-net that the crew of BA038, the ill fated 772 flight from Beijing that crash landed at LHR, have been shabily treated by BA. However the CEO's statement in the report praises the crew's "skills", says "they were able to deal with the incident professionally, effectively and safely", says that they "did a magnificent job'" and that Willie Walsh is "very proud of them".