IAG reaps the benefits of restructuring

IAG has increased its lead over Ryanair thanks to Iberia and budget airline Vueling.

“We were in intensive care, now we’re on the ward and soon we’ll be leaving hospital,” said Iberia president Luis Gallego.

BA and Iberia merged in 2011 to create IAG, acquiring Vueling in 2013. Restructuring which began in 2012 was plagued with labour disputes, redundancies and cutting out routes but now IAG is reaping the benefits with this year’s 32,637,741 passengers.

This is 9.5 per cent more than in 2013 and the distance separating IAG from Ryanair, the second-biggest player in Spain has doubled.

Although Ryanair remains the biggest individual airline with 25.8 million passengers, this shows a 1.1 per cent drop on 2013’s figures.

The Irish company is followed by Vueling whose 17.3 million passengers represent a 16.8 per cent increase on last year and Iberia, with 10,148,710 passengers.