British Airways yesterday announced its strongest third-quarter results for more than a decade as it emerged strongly from the three-year global aviation recession.

The group almost tripled operating profits from £53 million to £138 million, while pre-tax profits for the three months from October to December jumped fivefold from £25 million to £125 million, the best third quarter for 12 years.

BA joined a growing number of airlines reporting signs of financial recovery, with US carriers reducing their record losses and carriers in Asia setting the pace.

The group's financial performance was at the top end of market expectations and was helped by significant progress in cutting costs as well as by a small increase in revenue thanks to a recovery in long-haul premium traffic.

Mr Rod Eddington, BA chief executive, said the company had "survived the most testing period in aviation history" by taking costs totalling £1.7 billion out of the business since the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US plunged the industry into turmoil.

BA's recovery is starting to fuel market speculation that the group could resume dividend payments for the first time in two-and-a-half years after halting payments in the crisis after September 11th.

The airline has had to cancel several flights between London Heathrow and the US in recent weeks because of terror alerts.

Lord Marshall, the airline's chairman, warned again yesterday that "security issues are having some impact on forward bookings".

For the first nine months, pre-tax profit was 44.8 per cent lower at £185 million, a fall from £335 million a year earlier, while operating profit fell by 18.7 per cent from £459 million to £373 million.

Lord Marshall said despite the improvement in long-haul premium volumes, short-haul premium demand remained weak and economy tickets were still "very sensitive" to price levels.