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LONDON (Alliance News) - International Consolidated Airlines Group on Friday reported a rise in group traffic in December but a decrease in load factor, which it said was due to the terrorist attack in Paris in November.
The airline said group traffic, which is measured in revenue passenger kilometres, increased 10.5% year-on-year to 17.6 million from 15.9 million.
However, passenger load factor declined by 1.1 percentage points to 78.6% from 79.7%. IAG said this was because of the terrorist attack in Paris in November, which temporarily deterred customers from wanting to travel.
IAG added that guidance for full-year operating profit in 2015 remains unchanged at between EUR2.25 billion and EUR2.30 billion.
On Thursday, easyJet PLC also blamed the Paris attack on a fall in December's load factor. The low-cost airline said its load factor declined to 86.6% from 88.4%, while passenger traffic rose 4.6% year-on-year to 4.8 million from 4.6 million.
Ryanair Holdings PLC, however, reported an increase in both passenger traffic and load factor in December. The Irish carrier said its load factor improved to 91.0% from 88.0%, while passenger traffic grew 25% year-on-year to 7.5 million from 6.0 million.
Shares in IAG were trading up 0.4% at 592.50 pence on Friday afternoon, while easyJet shares were up 3.2% at 1,722.00 and Ryanair shares were up 2.6% at EUR15.06.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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