IAG Confirms Order for 37 Airbus A320neo Aircraft

Dark/Light Mode (31/10/22)  International Airlines Group (IAG) has confirmed an order for 37 Airbus A320neo aircraft, following shareholder approval.

The order follows earlier agreements for 17 A320neos and 5 A321neos announced in March and June 2022, respectively, taking the total for the year to 59 single aisle aircraft.

“IAG operates Airbus aircraft extensively in its fleet making it one of the largest Airbus customers globally. These latest generation aircraft will be key in IAG’s stated environmental mission to operate the world’s most fuel efficient planes”, said Christian Scherer, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Airbus International.

IAG, a Spanish company with shares traded on the Spanish and London Stock Exchanges, is one of the world's largest airline groups. The company comprises of Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Level, Vueling, IAG Loyalty, IAG Cargo and IAG Global Business Services (GBS).

Aer Lingus Airbus A320 reg: EI-DVN. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com

In the first nine months of 2022, IAG capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), reached 75.3% of that operated in the first nine months of 2019.

Capacity was steadily increased through the period, with Q1 2022 at 65.1 of 2019, Q2 2022 at 78% of 2019 and Q3 2022 at 81.1% of 2019.

The impact of COVID19 and related travel restrictions was significantly less than in the first nine months of 2021, when many countries were in lockdown or had severe travel restrictions in place.

The passenger load factor reached 81.3% in the first nine months of 2022, with the passenger load factor in Q1 at 72.2%, Q2 at 81.8% and Q3 at 87%, which was just 0.7 points lower than in Q3 2019.

There was some impact from the Omicron variant of COVID19 early in the year, mainly in January and February. Capacity operated out of London Heathrow airport was lower than originally planned at the start of the year and British Airways’ capacity was limited to 74.2% of 2019 in Q3, up from 57.4% in Q1 and 69.1% in Q2.

Passenger revenue rose €10,880 million to €14,020 million, reflecting the significant increase in capacity operated, together with the positive impact of a 21.3 percentage point increase in the passenger load factor and passenger yields per revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) up 27%.

The resulting passenger unit revenue (passenger revenue per ASK) was 72.2% higher than the previous year and was up to 91% of that seen in the first nine months of 2019.

Cargo revenue was up €42 million to €1,216 million, 3.6% higher than in the first nine months of 2021, despite only 480 cargo flights operated in the period, down from 3,334 in the first nine months of 2021, due to the significant increase in the passenger capacity operated.

Yields increased 1.8% on 2021, supported by continued global supply chain disruption, particularly in the first half of the year.

Cargo carried, measured in cargo tonne kilometres (CTKs), rose by 1.7%. Compared with 2019, Cargo revenue increased by €391 million, or 47.4%.

Other revenue increased by €837 million to €1,444 million, reflecting the recovery in the group’s non-airline businesses, including BA Holidays, Iberia’s maintenance and third party handling businesses and IAG Loyalty. Other revenue was 4% higher than in the first nine months of 2019.

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