On Friday, IAG, the owner of British Airways said, during the first quarter of this year, it saw a strong recovery in business travel and that it expects to be profitable from the second quarter onwards for the full year.

It went on to add, the continued easing of travel restrictions, especially in Britain, has resulted in the picking up of travel demand; there has been no noticeable impact from the war in Ukraine.

“Demand is recovering strongly in line with our previous expectations,” said Luis Gallego, IAG’s CEO while adding, the company was currently focused on improving operations, customer experience and its operational resilience.

Earlier this year in February and March, British Airways was hit by separate technical issues as a result of which it had to cancel a small number of flights in April due to staff sickness and delays in ramping up crew levels.

IAG said it would ramp up capacity from 65% of 2019 levels in the first quarter to around 80% in the second, 85% in the third and 90% in the fourth, with North Atlantic routes close to full capacity by quarter three.

IAG reported a first-quarter operating loss of 731 million euros, compared with a restated 1.07 billion euros for the same period a year ago.

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