LONDON (Alliance News) - International Consolidated Airlines Group Friday said premium traffic rose in April and said its Spanish carrier Iberia plans to launch its first service to Asia within the next couple of months.
The company has also chosen to redeem all of its outstanding bonds that are due in 2018.
IAG - which owns British Airways, Ireland's Aer Lingus, and Spanish carriers Iberia and Vueling - said revenue passenger kilometres rose 11% year-on-year in April, whilst the group's capacity measured in available seat kilometres also increased by 11% during the month.
On a pro-forma basis, revenue passenger kilometres was up 2.8% from the previous year whilst the available seat kilometres was up 2.6%.
In addition, premium traffic in April was 4.4% higher than in April 2015, on a pro-forma basis.
IAG said Iberia has recently said it will begin to offer services from Madrid to Shanghai in China from June 28. IAG said it will be Iberia's first destination in Asia, which will be followed by services to Tokyo starting on October 18.
Iberia will offer three flights a week to Shanghai using its A330-200 fleet.
In a separate statement, IAG said it has exercised its option to redeem a substantial amount of bonds. The bonds in question are the EUR390.0 million, 1.75% bonds due in 2018.
IAG said it will redeem all of the outstanding bonds on June 21, amounting to EUR386.1 million plus interest.
Deutsche Bank AG has dispatched a redemption notice to all the bondholders. IAG said the bondholders have the option to exchange their bonds for shares in the company.
As of Friday, the conversion price of the bonds is EUR4.1976 per share, and bondholders wishing to exchange bonds for shares have until June 14 to file a conversion notice.
"The conversion deadline represents the final opportunity for bondholders to convert their bonds into ordinary shares in the Issuer before the redemption of all outstanding bonds on the optional redemption date," said IAG.
IAG shares were trading flat at 510.00 pence per share on Friday afternoon.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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International Airlines (IAG)