Iberia: Verkehrszahlen Juli 2006

Traffic statistics in July were affected by the Pilots’ strike (called for the 10^th to the 16^th of July) and the illegal protest made by the handling employees in the Barcelona airport on the 28th. Consequently, capacity -measured in available seat kilometre (ASK)- fell 3.8% compared to the scheduled capacity and 0.8% in comparison with last year. Traffic -measured in revenue passenger kilometre (RPK)- increased by 0.6%. The average stage length rose by 9.8% due mainly to the growing weight of international flights.

In the long haul flights, the mix continued to improve and traffic grew by 7.7% while the load factor went up 1.0 points. Once again flights to South America had an excellent performance with 30% increase in traffic and 8.8-point improvement in the load factor, which stood at 87.8%.

In the medium haul the load factor rose by 2.2 points compared to the previous year, reaching 80.2% and the mix continued to improve. In Europe the aforementioned industrial action led to 4.6% and 2.0% decreases in capacity and demand respectively; nevertheless, traffic grew in Denmark, Italy, Greece, Russia and Turkey. All flights to North and Central Africa had a good evolution in traffic and load factors in contrast with the decreases in the Middle East, affected by the armed conflict.

The domestic sector was the most affected by the aforementioned capacity reduction; however the trend of unit revenue improvement year on year was maintained. In flights between the mainland and the Canary Islands capacity dropped by 10.3% compared to the previous year and the load factor decreased by 1.5 points. In the rest of flights, capacity decreased by 14.4% and the load factor fell by 1.1 points.

● The pilots collective called for strike between the 10^th and the 16^th of July; finally, the strike was carried out until the 13^th after an agreement was reached with the company. Likewise, on the 28^th ground employees of Barcelona went on strike protesting against the new handling licenses awarded by AENA.  

● On the 25^th of July, AENA (Spanish Airports and Air Navigation) awarded the new handling licenses according to the Spanish handling liberalisation process. Iberia was the company which got more licenses (21), maintaining its presence in 36 airports (together with the Ceuta heliport) including those of more traffic volume, with the exception of Barcelona; however, AENA has authorised Iberia to make its auto-handling in this airport. The new licenses will have a length of seven years and operations will gradually begin from October although the schedule is still to be defined.

● Correos -the Spanish state owned postal company- has awarded Iberia the mail air transportation between the mainland and the Canary Islands, representing an annual traffic of more than nine kilos and an amount of €6.72 million.

● On the 1st of August the airline Royal Jordanian was incorporated to Iberia’s frequent flyer program, Iberia Plus.