 BRITISH CALEDONIAN GROUP ANNOUNCES BIG LOSSES

  &lt;British Caledonian Group>, Britain's
  second largest airline, has announced a 19.3 mln stg pretax
  loss for the financial year ending last October, compared with
  a record pre-tax profit of 21.7 mln stg in 1985, chairman Sir
  Adam Thomson told reporters.
      A decline in U.S. Transatlantic traffic following terrorist
  attacks in Europe, the U.S. Bombing of the Libya, the Chernobyl
  disaster and a slump in the oil industry which affected Middle
  East traffic were the main causes of the loss, Thomson said.
      He said the poor results were caused by "a range of
  exceptional circumstances wholly outside our direct control" and
  predicted a return to profitability this year.
      Last year, the airline was forced to axe 1,000 jobs, sell
  some of its assets and cut the number of its flights across the
  Atlantic and to the Middle East following the fall in business
  .
  

