British Airways parent International Airlines Group's second-quarter corporate volume dropped nearly 8 percent year over year, but its corporate revenue for the same period declined about 1 percent, IAG CEO Luis Gallego said during a Friday earnings call.
IAG also includes Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling. By carrier, Iberia experienced the largest corporate volume decline for the quarter, down close to 12 percent year over year, Gallego said, with its corporate revenue down about 7 percent. For BA, "we had a decline in volume, but in revenue, we were almost flat," he added.
Gallego cited volatility following the announcement of tariffs for North American points of sale. For that region, BA's corporate revenue in the second quarter was down 3 percent compared with a year prior, with a "huge impact in April," but mainly because Easter this year was in the second quarter, he said.
British Airways CEO Sean Doyle, however, added that reported business revenue for the first six months of 2025 was up about 4 percent, and for the North Atlantic region was up about 7 percent. "So that's encouraging," he said.
For Latin America, corporate is "performing very strong," added Iberia CEO Marco Sansavini. "We are ahead in both revenues and volumes, not only from 2024, but even compared to pre-Covid," he said. "In terms of revenues, we are 8 percent ahead of last year and 38 percent in the first half compared to 2019."
Despite the lower Q2 results, at least for British Airways, the company maintains its "target to improve the business revenue for this year, even driven by North Atlantic that we see is recovering," Gallego said.
IAG Q2 Metrics
IAG reported second-quarter passenger revenue of nearly €7.8 billion, an increase of 4.9 percent year over year. Total revenue for the group was about €8.9 billion, up 6.8 percent from a year prior. Net income before taxes was €1.5 billion, up from more than €1.1 billion reported in Q2 2024. Second-quarter capacity increased 2.2 percent year over year, while load factor fell 1.3 percentage points to 85.4 percent.
British Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia each posted year-over-year profit increases. Vueling's profit, however, fell €2 million to €95 million. BA recorded a £269 million uptick in profit to £824 million, driven by a 2.1 percent increase in capacity. This is despite the March 21 shutdown of its London Heathrow hub, which had an estimated adverse effect of £40 million.
The group said it will continue to invest in its core markets, namely the North Atlantic and Latin American markets, despite some "weakness" in U.S. point-of-sale economy leisure demand in the second quarter.
IAG secured more than 200,000 metric tons of sustainable aviation fuel in the year’s first half, marking a 25 percent year-over-year increase, according to its earnings presentation. It also inked a deal with Microsoft to reduce the latter's Scope 3 emissions from business travel.
The group’s full-year outlook includes projected capacity growth of 2.5 percent year over year, down from the 3 percent growth previously estimated, due to geopolitical uncertainties. As of July 29, second-half bookings were "in line with last year," Gallego said, with 57 percent of capacity already booked.
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