Iberia Airlines poor performance hits IAG

Iberia Airlines flights failed to put up a strong showing this May causing losses to its parent company IAG.

The company in a statement recently said that Iberia Airlines flights had to be grounded on several occasions because of the industrial dispute with the airline’s pilots in the last few months over the launch of its low-cost subsidiary Iberia Express.

Iberia Express is currently operating flights to 14 destinations from Madrid, on both international and domestic routes.

The company said that British Airways’ strong long-haul premium traffic is significantly helping to tide over the financial losses caused by the weaker performance of sister carrier Iberia airlines.

According to IAG, the overall traffic for both the carriers increased by 6.6 percent in May 2012, (based on revenue passenger kilometers) as compared to the same month in 2011.

The company disclosed that the premium traffic increased by 1.7 percent in May this year, while economy passengers increased by 7.5 percent y-o-y. The total number of passengers carried went up by 9.3 percent to 4.8 million for May.