While corporate travel at British Airways parent International Airlines Group increased through 2024, "we estimate that it will not fully recover to pre-Covid-19 levels, particularly for short duration and short-haul trips," the company noted Friday in an earnings release.
Still, demand improved during the year compared with 2023 levels. Group-wide, IAG—which also includes Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling—in 2024 reached 74 percent of 2019 corporate volume and 86 percent of the revenue, IAG CEO Luis Gallego said on a Friday morning earnings call. "That's an improvement in volume of three [percentage] points in comparison with 2023 and six [percentage] points in revenue."
Gallego cited recovering sectors for the company as finance, including banking, accounting and consulting companies, with technology firms "having a very good performance."
British Airways' corporate volume was 66 percent of Q4 2019 levels with revenue at 82 percent, while Iberia's corporate volume was 84 percent of pre-pandemic levels and revenue at 108 percent of that benchmark. Aer Lingus reported the quarter's corporate volume at 5 percent ahead of 2019 levels and revenue even at 100 percent.
IAG Q4, Full-Year 2024 Metrics
IAG reported fourth-quarter 2024 passenger revenue of €6.96 billion (US$7.24 billion), an increase of 10.6 percent year over year. Total quarterly revenue was more than €8 billion, representing an 11.4 percent increase. Full-year passenger revenue was €28.27 billion on total revenue of €32.1 billion, representing year-over-year increases of 9.5 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
The group's operating profit for the quarter was €961 million compared with €502 million a year prior. Full-year operating profit was €4.28 billion, representing a 22.1 percent increase compared with 2023.
Fourth-quarter IAG capacity increased 4.3 percent year over year, while full-year capacity was up 6.2 percent.
IAG projects group-wide capacity to grow 3 percent year-over-year in the first quarter and also for the full year 2025, according to an IAG presentation. BA capacity is projected to increase 1 percent year over year for Q1 and 2 percent for the full year. Iberia projects a 5 percent increase in capacity for Q1 and 3 percent for the full year, and Aer Lingus capacity is scheduled to increase 5 percent in Q1 and 6 percent for 2025.
When broken down by region, Gallego during the call said that domestic capacity would be up around 4 percent year over year for the full year, with Europe up 3 percent, the North Atlantic up 3 percent, Latin America up 4.5 percent and Asia-Pacific up 5 percent. "So long haul is around 70 percent of the growth and short haul is 30 percent," he said.
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