British Airways says May traffic up on premium travel

MADRID (Reuters) - International Airlines Group (ICAG.L) (ICAG.MC) formed by the merger of BA and Iberia, posted a rise in passenger traffic for May thanks to continued growth in first-class and business-class travel.

Traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose 14.1 percent versus May 2010, while passenger load factor — a measure of how well it fills its planes — was up 4.7 percentage points at 78.1 percent.

IAG said part of the rise in May traffic was due to favourable comparisons from a year earlier, when strike disruption hit passenger numbers, but added that the underlying revenue trend was in line with last month.

Europe’s second-biggest airline group by value behind Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) said its first and business-class travel — the most profitable part of its passenger business — rose 30.7 percent, while non-premium traffic was up 11.4 percent. However, on Thursday the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said maintaining high load factors to support profitable growth in the airline industry will be difficult despite a significant improvement in April’s traffic data. [ID:nSGC003980]