IAG tips

The owner of some of Europe’s best-known airlines more than doubled its operating profit last year. International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) – the parent company behind brands such as British Airways and Iberia – posted results comfortably ahead of market expectations.

British Airways has announced a big change to redemptions in its loyalty program. The airline is making every flight available to buy from just £1 ($1.25), plus Avios. 

New CEOs for Iberia and Vueling.

Portugal’s Finance Minister Fernando Medina kicked off the long-awaited sale of TAP Air Portugal Thursday with the announcement that the government would sell a 51% stake in the state-owned airline to the highest bidder.

Portugal’s flag carrier TAP said on Wednesday that it swung to a net profit of $25 million (23 million euros) in the first half of 2023 on strong revenue growth, boosted by booming tourism, and forecast a strong performance for the remainder of the year.

British Airways-owner IAG said business travel volumes in South America were recovering faster than those across the North Atlantic, although he expected the latter to catch up.

Portugal’s state holding company Parpublica has hired Ernst & Young and Portuguese bank Banco Finantia to determine the value of state-owned airline TAP ahead of its privatisation, it said on Tuesday.

Portugal’s state-owned airline TAP carried 7.58 million passengers in the first half of this year, a 30% increase from a year ago but still slightly below pre-pandemic levels even as tourist numbers have already exceeded those seen in 2019.

The privatization of Portugal’s state-owned airline TAP will take place before October instead of starting in July as the government had originally planned, Infrastructure Minister Joao Galamba said.

Asked point blank if International Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, saw any declines in airfares or travel demand, CEO Luis Gallego was blunt. “We don’t see that,” he said.