Eurostar passenger numbers dropped 11.5% to 1.92 million in the first three months of 2009.

Sales for the period were £168.1 million, down 5.8% on the same period last year.

The high-speed operator blamed the decreases on the Eurotunnel fire, which forced it to reduce its services.

It said business traffic was also impacted by the global economic downturn.

Reduced demand and customers down-trading pushed business sales down 20%.

Eurostar said since the full opening of the tunnel on February 23, it was able to resume full promotional campaigns in its three core markets “which has already lead to a significant increase in leisure sales”.

“Indeed, set against a challenging economic environment, leisure sales were up 2.2% in a first quarter which had just five weeks of full service operation,” it said.

“In France and Belgium one of the key factors in stimulating travel has been the favourable exchange rate for euro-zone visitors to London and other parts of the UK.”

Chief executive Richard Brown said: “The downturn may be depressing business travel but it is having the opposite effect on the leisure market, with more people wanting to get away from it all to relax, recharge the batteries and spend time with loved ones.

“Like other businesses, we must reduce our costs to meet the new economic realities. We are also preparing for the challenges and opportunities of on-rail competition from January 2010.

“We are determined to continue growing our markets and we will be fully ready to compete head-on with any new competitor on our routes.”

The return to normal operations through the tunnel enabled Eurostar to achieve punctuality of 96% between February 23 and the end of March.

By Bev Fearis