Bloomin' June for IAG

International Airlines Group, the company formed by the merger of British Airways and Iberia, had a good June but is expecting the Olympic Games in London to hit is premium traffic business.

Passengers carried in June rose 11.6%, or 6.1% on a like-for-like (LFL) basis, to 5.05m from 4.53m a year earlier.

In the first six months of 2012 passenger numbers were up 3.7% (+1.4% LFL) to 25.73m from 24.81m in the first half of 2011.

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In June, traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres rose 8.9% (+5.9% LFL) to 15,777m kilometres from 14,488m kilometres in June 2011. Year-to-date revenue passenger kilometres (km) are up 5.2% (+4.0% LFL) on the first half of 2011.

Group premium traffic for the month of June grew by 5.3% compared to the previous year, with 9.6% growth in non-premium traffic.

Iberia's revenue passenger km rose 3.2% in June to 4,471m from 4,333m in June 2011, while British Airways' revenue passenger km jumped 11.3% (+7.1% on a LFL basis) to 11,306m from 10,156m a year earlier.

Group capacity measured in available seat kilometres was up 5.8% (+2.6% LFL) in June from a year earlier.

"Underlying market conditions remain unchanged from last month. As we had indicated earlier in the year there is likely to be some near-term softness in premium traffic due to the Olympic Games," the IAG statement said.

JH