British Airways owner IAG reported dreadful results last week, but it was hardly unexpected.

The Spanish/UK airline Group lost more than €1.135bn in the first three months of the year as much of its fleet remained grounded by Covid-19 travel restrictions.

The airline carried only 19.6% of the passengers it flew over the same period in 2019 and said that it expected to move about 25% of 2019 levels in the second quarter.

The group said that its liquidity at the end of March stood at €10.5bn "demonstrating IAG's good access to capital markets."

At the close of the markets on Friday IAG shares stood at 213p, compared with 713p in June 2018 with the FTSE up around 20% in the same period.  

Luis Gallego, IAG chief executive, said: "We're taking all necessary actions to ensure the financial health of our business for the long term . . . and remain focused on reducing our cost base and increasing efficiencies."

In response to lower passenger demand, IAG has increases cargo-only from 969 tons in the previous quarter to 1,306 tons in the first quarter of the current year. They generated €350m in total revenue, which is a record for the first quarter of the year.

See also BA PR appointment in this week's BTN.

www.iairgroup.com