ANA Holdings’ financials improved significantly in the April-June quarter, on the back of recovering travel demand. “In the airline industry, passenger demand is rapidly recovering, with eased travel restrictions on domestic flights, as well as less entry restrictions in various countries for international flights,” the group said in a statement today. Operating loss for the period was Y1.3 billion ($9.8 million), versus a Y64.6 billion loss in the year-ago period. Operating revenue had increased by 76% year on year to Y350 billion, while operating expenses declined by 34% to Y352 billion. Net income for the quarter was Y1 billion – the first profitable period in ten quarters, ANA says – compared with a Y51.1 billion net loss for the April-June 2021 period. ANA attributes the increase in operating revenue mainly to its core business of air transportation. Revenues from the segment increased by 85% to Y314 billion, “backed by a significant increase in passenger demand on both domestic and international flights, as well as proactive efforts to capture high-yield cargo”. While fuel prices and “expanded scale of operations” pushed up variable costs, ANA said it improved profitability through disciplined cost management and by curbing the increase in fixed costs. Within the air transportation segment, there were significant improvements across ANA’s airlines and networks. In the recently concluded quarter, mainline carrier ANA’s domestic passenger network replaced its cargo network as the largest source of revenue, versus the year-ago period. Revenue from domestic operations increased by 103% year on year to Y102 billion. The group attributes this to the removal of travel restrictions within Japan for the first time in three years, and reports improvements in leisure and business travel. Meanwhile, revenues from ANA’s cargo network increased by 43% year on year to Y94.7 billion. On a year-on-year basis international cargo volumes had declined, owing to the impact of the war in Ukraine on Europe routes, as well as a decline in demand for goods such as automotive parts. Despite that, revenues increased as shipping congestion pushed up freight rates, alongside ANA’s efforts to capitalise on “highly profitable” North America routes and capture high-yield cargo such as oversized commercial products. As for ANA’s international passenger service, revenue increased to Y62.2 billion from Y12.9 billion in the year-ago period as travel restrictions eased, and the network reports 70.7% load factor. This was backed by recovering demand for business travel, homecoming expatriates, and an increased demand for connections between Asia and North America. Likewise, revenue from low-cost unit Peach Aviation nearly quadrupled to Y15.5 billion. For the fiscal year ending 31 March 2023, ANA is expecting Y30 billion in operating income and Y1.66 trillion in operating revenue, on a consolidated basis. “Passenger demand on international and domestic routes recovered steadily, while cargo demand remained strong,” ANA states. “While Covid-19 cases in Japan are currently on the rise, total bookings continue to increase.”

Iberia will return to full pre-pandemic capacity for the upcoming winter season, as it resumes flights to Latin America, the USA and increases deployment on its short and medium haul network. The airline says it plans to resume its flights to Caracas and Rio de Janeiro, its last two destinations in Latin America still pending after the pandemic, in November, as part of its winter schedule, which begins on 30 October until 28 March 2023. The airline will offer thrice-weekly flights on each of the routes, the IAG-owned Spanish airline says. In the USA, Iberia will extend the operation of the flights with Dallas that it had initially launched only for the summer season and will increase frequency of flights to New York and Miami. In Europe, it will offer its route to Funchal all winter with three weekly frequencies and increase capacity in several destinations such as Milan, Rome, Geneva, Brussels and Bordeaux. In the domestic market, Iberia has reinforced its commitment to the cities with the highest corporate traffic such as Barcelona and Bilbao. It will recover this winter all its operations on the Madrid-Barcelona Air Shuttle prior to the pandemic with 87 weekly frequencies and up to 15 daily flights in each direction. It will also increase frequencies to Bilbao, La Coruna, Asturias and Vigo, among others. Subsidiary Iberia Express has scheduled a capacity growth of 49% in the Balearic Islands and 28% in the Canary Islands.

IAG made an operating profit of €293 million ($299 million) in the second quarter, swinging from a €967 million operating loss in the same period of 2021. Revenue increased to €5.92 billion from €1.24 billion, the European airline group says. A net profit of €133 million compares with a loss of €981 million a year ago. Passenger unit revenue in the second quarter was up 6.4% compared with 2019, "helping to offset lower capacity and higher fuel costs, driven by passenger revenue yield 10.6% higher than in 2019", the group notes. "In the second quarter, we returned to profit for the first time since the start of the pandemic following a strong recovery in demand across all our airlines," states IAG chief executive Luis Gallego. "This result supports our outlook for a full year operating profit." Capacity, as measured in available seat-kilometres, was boosted 257%, while revenue passenger-kilometres grew 463%. Load factor gained 30 percentage points to 82%. "Premium leisure remains strong while business travel continues a steady recovery in all airlines. Iberia and Vueling were the best-performing carriers within the group. The Spanish domestic market and routes to Latin America continued to lead the recovery with demand exceeding 2019 levels last month," Gallego adds. For the six months ended 30 June, the group reported an operating loss of €438 million, narrowing a loss of €2.04 billion in the first half of 2021. Total revenue was up 323% to €9.35 billion, while the net loss reduced to €654 million from €2.05 billion. At 30 June, the group had total liquidity of €13.5 billion, comprising cash and interest-bearing deposits of €9.2 billion, €3.2 billion of committed and undrawn general facilities, and a further €1.1 billion of committed and undrawn aircraft-specific facilities. A total of 13 Airbus aircraft were delivered in the first half: four Airbus A350-1000s, three A350-900s, five A320neos and one A321neo. "In line with our net-zero commitment by 2050, we have announced the addition of 50 new Boeing 737s and 59 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft subject to shareholder approval. These modern, fuel-efficient planes will see us over 60% through our short-haul fleet replacement by 2028," Gallego states.