DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Sluggish return of business travelers forces US airlines to rejig their networks
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Rajesh Kumar Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Before the pandemic hit in 2020, corporate travel was the travel industry's cash cow. Investors in travel companies are concerned that the spending from vacationers cannot make up the shortfall. For months, Alaska Air's (ALK.N) business bookings have been 25% below pre-pandemic levels. JetBlue Airways (JBLU.O) said on Tuesday it will redeploy capacity away from New York to high-margin leisure destinations with business travel demand 20% below pre-pandemic levels. Recent passenger screening and fare data shows U.S. travel demand has peaked, hurting the carriers' pricing power.

Persons: Ronald Reagan, Kevin Lamarque, Shane Tackett, Bob Jordan, Kevin Kopelman, Luis Gallego, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Doyinsola Oladipo, Sarah Young, Joanna Plucinska, David Gaffen, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, REUTERS, U.S, Investors, Airlines for America, Reuters, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Marriott, MasterCard, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, NYSE, Cowen, British Airways, IAG, Google, JPMorgan, Thomson Locations: Ronald Reagan Washington, Arlington , Virginia, U.S, Alaska, Seattle, Mexico, Costa Rica, California, New York, Asia, Pacific, Europe, Chicago, London

But so far, IAG had not seen "any weakness into Q3 and Q4", finance chief Nicholas Cadbury added. In May, it said it expected annual profit above 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion), and analysts' consensus forecast stands at 2.8 billion euros. For the three months to the end of June, the group recorded an operating profit before exceptional items of 1.25 billion euros, compared to the 895 million euros analysts were on average expecting. "These numbers will help push expectations for this year strongly through the 3 billion euro operating profit level," Goodbody analysts said. ($1 = 0.9106 euros)Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Kate Holton and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Luis Gallego, IAG, Nicholas Cadbury, Sarah Young, Kate Holton, Mark Potter Organizations: British Airways, Air France, KLM AIRF.PA, Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Thomson Locations: Iberia, Aer, IAG, Europe

☆ Airlines report soaring profits amid travel demands
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Eva Rothenberg | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —International airlines have reported significant profits this year, boosted by strong demand for leisure travel – and events, such as the World Cup, which gave Qatar Airlines an enormous lift. On Thursday, International Airlines Group, which includes Aer Lingus and British Airways, announced a record profit of about $1.4 billion for the first half of the year. “Customer demand remains strong across the Group, particularly for leisure travel, with around 80% of passenger revenue for the third quarter already booked. Qatar Airways reported a $1.2 billion profit for the past fiscal year, ascribing its strong performance to December’s FIFA World Cup. In its report, Qatar Airways said that, throughout the 2022 World Cup, the company operated around 140,000 flights to bring more than 1.4 million people to Qatar.

Persons: Luis Gallego, Benjamin Smith, Akbar Al Baker, Michael O’Leary, – CNN’s Mostafa Salem, Pierre Meilhan Organizations: CNN — International, Qatar, International Airlines Group, Aer Lingus, British Airways, KLM Group, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Olympic, Paralympic Games, Air, Qatar Airways, KLM, FIFA, Ryanair, Europe’s Locations: AirFrance, Amsterdam, France, Air France, Qatar

☆ UK regulator tells Heathrow to cut fees in win for airlines
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Sarah Young | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A worker sanitises a barrier at the International arrivals area of Terminal 5 in London's Heathrow Airport, Britain, August 2, 2021. The lower fees will boost airlines such as IAG's (ICAG.L) British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, two of Heathrow's biggest, making the airport cheaper for them. They have long complained that fees at Heathrow, the busiest airport in western Europe, are the highest in the world. The strong bounceback in travel since the lows of the pandemic prompted the CAA to reduce the fees Heathrow can charge in the coming years. Improved forecasts for passenger numbers this year and next year mean Heathrow will be able to generate higher revenue, said the CAA, which uses passenger numbers to calculate the charges.

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - British Airways-owner IAG (ICAG.L) forecast 2023 profit could jump almost 90% after its financial performance improved substantially last year and it agreed a deal to buy all of Spain-based Air Europa. For 2023, the airline group, which also owns Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus, forecast operating profit in the range of 1.8 billion euros ($1.91 billion) to 2.3 billion euros, compared to the 1.22 billion euros it made last year. That result came in ahead of analyst expectations and represented an improvement of 4 billion euros from the previous year when COVID-19 travel restrictions made airlines across the world loss-making. IAG agreed on Thursday to pay 400 million euros ($423.84 million) to Spain's Globalia for the remaining 80% of Air Europa it did not already own, a deal aimed at expanding its position in the Latin American market. Looking ahead, chief executive Luis Gallego said IAG was seeing robust forward bookings, although it remained conscious of the global macro-economic uncertainties.

☆ IAG takeoff weighed down by debt dilemma
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Aimee Donnellan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Its $11 billion net debt pile, a legacy of an epic collapse in revenue during the pandemic, is tangibly more than its $9.4 billion market capitalisation. While Friday’s 2022 results showed operating profit of only 1.22 billion euros, well below the 3.3 billion euros it delivered in 2019, the last few years have seen big operating losses. Operating profit could be as high as 2.3 billion euros in 2023, according to company forecasts. More holidaymakers mean revenue last year was over 23 billion euros, compared to less than 8.5 billon euros in 2021. IAG announced an operating profit of 1.22 billion euros for 2022 and forecast 2023 operating profit in the range of 1.8 billion euros to 2.3 billion euros.

☆ BA-owner IAG posts Q3 profit of 1.2 bln euros as revenues recover
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - IAG (ICAG.L), owner of British Airways and Iberia, reported third-quarter adjusted operating profit of 1.21 billion euros ($1.21 billion) after revenue returned to pre-pandemic levels despite much of its Asian network remaining closed due to COVID restrictions. The airlines group said on Friday it expected its adjusted operating profit for the year to be about 1.1 billion euros, including the 467 million-euro loss it made in the first half. Revenue of 7.33 billion euros for the quarter was 0.9% higher than in 2019, even though passenger capacity was 81.1% of pre-pandemic levels. Chief Executive Luis Gallego said all of the group's airlines were significantly profitable in the quarter and it was continuing to see strong passenger demand, while capacity and load factors recover. "While demand remains strong, we are conscious of the uncertainties in the economic outlook and the ongoing pressures on households," he said.

Search resuls for: "Luis Gallego"

7 mentions found