 These events were responsible for a sharp reduction in the IT business's annual rate of expansion—down to 12% to just over a million passengers after three years of spectacular growth.This in turn led to the implementation of a major cost-reduction programme at British Eagle following an estimated drop of 20% in projected summer holiday traffic, as a result of the challenging economic conditions.As a consequence, flightdeck personnel numbers were reduced by 48 (out of a total of 246).