IAG reports small rise in passenger numbers

International Airlines Group (IAG), which on Thursday announced the upcoming grounding of airline BMI Baby, posted a small year-on-year increase in passenger numbers in April.

The group's airlines, which include British Airways and Iberia, saw a 0.9% year-on-year rise in the number of passengers carried during April, boosted by flights to both Asia Pacific and North America.

Exluding BMI, Asia Pacific passengers rose 11.6% and North American passengers were up 5.9%. These figures were however offset by a 2.1% fall in UK & Spain passenger numbers and 5.1% fall in Latin America numbers.

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In the year to date, the number of passengers carried fell by 0.7%, with domestic flights pulling the figure down with an 11% decline. North America was the best year-to-date performer, up 9.4%.

Revenue passenger kilometres rose by 2.9% year-on-year, and were up 3.4% in the year to date. Year-on-year, Asia saw the biggest increase from 1,238m to 1,361m, while in the year to date the top performer was again North America, up 10.5% at 16,798m.

Passenger load factor grew 1.9 percentage points to 81.6% driven by Africa, Middle East and south Asia flights, and in the year to date increased 2.1 percentage points to 77.5%, pushed higher by domestic flights.

Cargo fell 2.3% year-on-year and 2.2% in the year to date. Available seats kilometres were up 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively.

NR