BA stutters as sister units power IAG traffic gain

BA owner IAG SA’s Irish and Spanish businesses spurred gains in passenger traffic at the company last year as expansion at the UK arm slowed. Aer Lingus, purchased by IAG in 2015, posted a 12% traffic increase, while the advance at Madrid-based Iberia accelerated to 7.6%, the group said Thursday. IAG has been pouring resources into a turnaround of Iberia and Aer Lingus, historically two of Europe’s worst-performing carriers. BA’s traffic growth slipped to 1.5% as it almost froze capacity to combat a glut in seats and bolster fares. The unit’s earnings have begun to recover from 2016’s Brexit vote, which triggered a slump in the pound, reducing the value of sales converted into euros, IAG’s reporting currency. Expansion also slowed at Barcelona-based discount carrier Vueling, which reported a 3.8% increase in traffic, a measure of passengers carried times the distance flown that’s a standard airline-performance indicator. IAG’s overall traffic also rose 3.8%, slowing from a 4.5% gain in 2016, while the passenger tally was up 4.1% to almost 105m. <br/>