“We are in the worst trading environment the industry has ever faced,” says Willie Walsh, the British Airways boss.

From a captain of an industry that has made a cumulative loss since the dawn of commercial flight, that is a big call. Are conditions really as bad as in the aftermath of September 11 2001? That, surely, was turbulence. Cynics might say his comment was just self-serving hyperbole from a man needing to explain a 92 per cent fall in quarterly earnings per share. That would be unfair. With BA’s fuel costs set to jump 50 per cent this year, the going is tough.