Overall corporate bookings for International Airlines Group carriers are making a “slow recovery,” CEO Luis Gallego said on an earnings call Friday of the group, which includes British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling. “We had a good January and February in BA and Iberia, but we had a more negative mark mainly due to the timing of Easter.”
Still, at BA, first-quarter corporate volume increased around 5 percent year over year to 70 percent compared with 2019, Gallego said. BA corporate revenue was at about 72 percent of 2019 levels, IAG CFO Nicholas Cadbury added.
For transatlantic demand on BA—which is stronger from the U.K. point of sale than from the North Atlantic side—”on corporate, we have seen an expansion in the market in the first quarter on the North Atlantic of about 7 percent, and we see that continuing as we look into the second quarter,” British Airways chairman and CEO Sean Doyle said. “I think that business recovery is also very encouraging.”
Gallego added that the company has seen a “very strong recovery versus last year to our network in India,” and an increase in business traffic in the broader region “as we are recovering the network to Asia.” IAG increased its capacity to the Asia-Pacific region during the quarter by 43.4 percent year over year.
Corporate volume at Iberia was at about 85 percent of 2019 levels. “That is linked also to the number of people coming back to work that is different in Spain than in [the] U.K.,” Gallego said.
IAG Q1 Metrics
IAG reported first-quarter passenger revenue of more than €5.6 billion ($6.1 billion), up 11.7 percent year over year. Total revenue was more than €6.4 billion, up 9.2 percent year over year. The company had an operating profit of €68 million, up from €9 million a year prior, but a loss before taxes of €87 million, compared with a €121 million loss reported in Q1 2023.
Capacity for the group increased 7 percent year over year for the quarter, with Iberia’s growing 15.4 percent, mostly driven by the increase in the number of Airbus A350-900 aircraft in service flying to North and South America, according to IAG. The North Atlantic region accounts for about 28.7 percent of the group’s capacity, with Europe representing 23.6 percent and Latin America and the Caribbean at 21.6 percent.
IAG projects overall capacity in 2024 to increase 7 percent compared with 2023.
