A 7.4% rise in premium passengers helped boost the British airways-Iberia holding company International Airlines Group last month.
The first results issued since the merger between the two airlines showed a strong level of long-haul traffic. IAG said that the good level of premium traffic growth was partly due to weak year-on-year comparatives due to snow in January 2010.
“Capacity and traffic comparisons were impacted by severe weather in Northern Europe in January 2010,” IAG said.
“Load factors have now reverted to more normal levels, without significant adverse impact on revenues. Excluding weather impact, we do not see any material change to trend: our long haul business remains strong, but the short haul European market continues to be highly competitive.
Economy traffic increased by 4% in the month as the total number of passengers carried by the airlines within the group went up by 4.5% to more than 3.75 million against equivalent figures for January last year.
The strongest growth was in Latin American and Caribbean traffic, with passengers up by 11.1% to 412,000. Passengers on high earning North Atlantic routes rose by 9.7% to 533,000.