British Airways owner IAG predicts another bumper summer

British Airways owner International Airlines Group expects another record summer amid unrelenting demand from holidaymakers and as tech executives drive a recovery in business travel. The airline company, which owns five carriers including Spain’s Iberia and Ireland’s Aer Lingus, said demand for travel “remains strong” and predicted it would fly more passengers this summer compared with last year. Passenger capacity would be up 7 per cent this year compared with 2023, IAG said. “We had a very strong summer last year . . . We expect passenger numbers probably to grow . . . as we put more aircraft across the Atlantic and into leisure destinations in Europe,” said chief financial officer Nicholas Cadbury. Lufthansa and Air France-KLM have also recently predicted another bumper summer as travellers brush off geopolitical fears and a weak economic backdrop. IAG has not issued financial guidance for the rest of the year, but analysts forecast another €3.5bn in operating profit, on par with last year’s record. Its shares were trading up about 1 per cent by early afternoon on Friday, at their highest levels in two-and-a-half years but 50 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. That is partly because corporate travel has been slow to return. But on Friday IAG said this part of its business “continued to recover” in the first quarter, after reaching 70 per cent of 2019 levels in 2023. IAG chief executive Luis Gallego said BA experienced a 25 per cent year-on-year rise in revenues from customers in the tech industry, which had been one of the weakest last year. But he said corporate travel in banking, finance and pharmaceuticals was still “lagging behind” other sectors in the quarter. The recovery in business travel had been quicker in Spain than the UK, because people returned to the office faster after the pandemic, and there was less remote working, Gallego added.<br/>