oneworld

Oneworld CE Rob Gurney is to step down from his role at the helm of the alliance’s central management team this summer. Former Emirates executive Gurney has led Oneworld since 2016 and will leave the role at the start of July. Oneworld chairman and Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker says: ”We are grateful to Rob for his leadership in navigating Oneworld through the challenges of the past six years.” During Gurney’s term, Oneworld added Royal Air Maroc and Alaska Airlines as new members, while plans for Oman Air to join the group were announced last year.<br/>

British Airways owner IAG and Air France-KLM have said they expect a surge in summer bookings as the post-pandemic travel boom gathers pace. IAG, which also owns Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, on Friday raised its annual profit forecast, helped by consumers’ willingness to stomach higher ticket prices, as well as a drop in fuel costs across the sector. The volume of wealthier passengers taking business class to Paris is buoying demand, according to Air France-KLM, which said that it had repaid all of the state aid it received during the pandemic. The two European airlines join Germany’s Lufthansa in reporting an optimistic outlook for the summer travel season. IAG said it had “healthy forward bookings” from leisure travellers in particular. As a result, the company expects full-year operating profit before exceptional items to surpass the E1.8b to E2.3b range it had forecast in February. The industry’s recovery from the pandemic has outpaced the expectations of many senior executives and investors, with consumers appearing to prioritise travel amid the surge in inflation across large western economies. For the first time since 2019, IAG began the year with a profitable quarter. Its earnings before exceptional items were E9m compared with a loss of €741mn a year before. “All our airlines performed above expectations,” said CE Luis Gallego. Analysts at Bernstein said IAG’s Q1 performance “put other legacy airlines in the shade” in what is a typically lossmaking quieter period. The group expects to fly 97% of its 2019 capacity this year, and highlighted strong demands on routes including in Spain and Latin America. The rebuilding of British Airways’ flight schedules is lagging behind the rest of the group, largely due to the slower reopening of Asia, and is forecast to hit 92% this year.<br/>

Air France-KLM left investors guessing about the strength of its recovery, abstaining from a full-year profit forecast and trimming its capacity prediction as French air-traffic control strikes and engine shortages inject uncertainty into the outlook. Shares in the Franco-Dutch group fell as much as 6.3% , slipping to their lowest level in more than three months, as its muted assessment contrasted with a raised 2023 forecast from British Airways owner IAG SA. Air France-KLM pared its capacity forecast to about 95% of 2019 levels, after previously saying it would reach as high as 100%. Beyond the strikes and engine shortages, a lack of available workers also is holding back the recovery. The company, which relied on billions of state aid to survive the pandemic, said it would restore its equity first before resuming a dividend payout and reaffirmed its longer-term margin guidance. “The main reason to explain today’s drop is the forecast downgrade for the group’s full-year capacity,” said Alphavalue analyst Yi Zhong. Air-traffic controller strikes in France will also continue disrupting operations, notably at Orly airport in Paris, exposing Air France to the risk of higher costs, revenue gaps and management distractions during the busy summer months. “It takes an enormous amount of effort from our operational teams to mitigate those losses,” CEO Ben Smith said on a call with analysts. “We expect those to continue in the near term. Our understanding is that it will continue one to two days a week for the foreseeable future.” The financial hit from the walkouts is below E20m so far, Smith said.<br/>

IAG raised its full-year earnings outlook after reporting a surprise profit in the typically weak Q1, highlighting how the airline industry has rapidly bounced back from the depths of the pandemic slump. The parent company of British Airways and Iberia now expects operating profit to exceed the upper end of its previous guidance, which called for a range of E1.8b to E2.3b, London-based IAG said on Friday. IAG also said its net debt will come down by the end of the year, after previously saying the figure would remain flat. IAG rose as much as 5.5% to 155.3 pence, the most since the start of the year. The stock has gained about 24% in value this year, the second-best performer on the 29-member Bloomberg World Airlines Index in the period behind low-cost specialist EasyJet Plc. Operating profit in Q1 came in at E9m, compared with a E718m loss reported a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted a E186.3m average loss. Airlines typically report losses for Q1 because of slow travel demand and make up for the deficit in the stronger Easter and summer seasons. “We are seeing healthy forward bookings with leisure demand particularly strong while business travel continues to recover more slowly,” CE Officer Luis Gallego said in the statement. IAG has benefited from lower fuel prices and robust demand for air travel that’s driven up fares faster than inflation. Air France-KLM also reported earnings today, saying it’s preparing for a busy holiday season amid strong summer ticket sales, while Deutsche Lufthansa AG said on May 3 that demand remains high for tourism travel to places like Spain as well as city breaks.<br/>