IAG reduces its losses to 654 million from January to June

The IAG group -which controls the airlines Iberia, Vueling British Airways and Aer Lingus- registered losses of 654 million euros in the first half of this year, compared to losses of 2,048 registered in the same period of the previous year.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
29 July 2022 Friday 09:56
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IAG reduces its losses to 654 million from January to June

The IAG group -which controls the airlines Iberia, Vueling British Airways and Aer Lingus- registered losses of 654 million euros in the first half of this year, compared to losses of 2,048 registered in the same period of the previous year.

The results are based on the strong recovery in demand after the coronavirus pandemic, which has led the airline to return to profit in the second quarter of the year. From April to June, profits were 133 million euros, compared to losses of 981 million euros in 2021.

"In the second quarter we have returned to profitability, for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic and thanks to the strong recovery in demand that has occurred in all our airlines. This result is in line with our profit forecast for 2022 Our result reflects, on the one hand, a significant increase in capacity and, on the other, in occupancy and revenue per passenger compared to the first quarter," said IAG CEO Luis Gallego.

Iberia and Vueling have been the airlines with the best performance within the airline group. The domestic market in Spain and the routes to Latin America have led the recovery. In fact, Iberia has been the only company in the group that has closed the semester on a positive note, obtaining 4 million euros in profit. Vueling, for its part, has recorded losses of 52 million euros.

Meanwhile, British Airways has been the company that has suffered most intensely from the collapses experienced by large European airports and especially the chaos at Heathrow, which has been forced to limit passenger capacity. Due to this, British Airways has canceled 2.9% of canceled flights that it had scheduled and has recorded losses of 424 million euros.

During the first six months of 2022, IAG's capacity, measured in seat kilometers offered, reached 72% of the levels of the first half of 2019, which represents a notable increase over the 20.8% figure of 2019 which was operated in the first half of 2021. The multinational highlighted the good performance of Vueling, which has recovered 100% capacity and that at a domestic level, it has even exceeded the levels of 2019.

At the Spanish level, the group has welcomed the smooth running of the airports and the increased police capacity at passport controls, which at the beginning of summer caused long waits for passengers. Faced with the increase in ticket fares, IAG has said that it is mainly due to the increase in fuel prices as well as the lack of recovery of full capacity.