Travel is back baby, as airlines start turning a profit

The travel industry continues its post-Covid bounce back with airlines starting to report positive figures.

IAG, the parent company of British Airways, reported this week that it saw a quarterly January to March profit for the first time since 2019.

BA made €9m (£7.9m) in operating airline profit, citing higher yields with lower fuel costs for the turnaround, Travel Mole reported.

It lost £660m during the same period in 2022.

Routes from Europe to both North and South America have recovered to pre-pandemic levels, IAG said, but it reported business travel is still sluggish.

“IAG has delivered a strong first quarter financial performance, as group airlines recovered capacity to close to pre-pandemic levels,” said CEO Luis Gallego.

“All our airlines performed above expectations.

“We are seeing healthy forward bookings with leisure demand strong.”

IAG says it will still be slightly short of a full pre-pandemic recovery by the end of 2023 but expects to be at 97% of 2019 levels by then.

The IAG company also operates airlines including Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling.