IAG Is Shifting Summer Flight Focus to North America From Asia
Photo Credit: British Airways parent International Airlines Group expects Summer 2021 to be busy across the Atlantic. Unsplash / Isaac Struna
Skift Take
It could be a hot summer across the Atlantic Ocean, as airlines scramble to add as many flights as they can on what they think will be the strongest leisure long-haul market in the world. With Asia still largely closed, British Airways is redeploying resources that would have flown to Asia to the Atlantic market.
International Airlines Group is making a big bet on North America this summer, with plans to fly roughly the same transatlantic capacity as before the pandemic, executives said last week on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call. But while IAG sees opportunity, its decision is partly a reflection of a new reality, in which one continent remains effectively closed to European airlines.
"The capacity that we are not flying to Asia, we are putting in the North Atlantic," IAG CEO Luis Gallego told analysts. "And that's the reason we are going to reach 100 percent of the capacity."
As IAG rebuilds its transatlantic franchise, its network will look different than three summers ago, with Aer Lingus flying less capacity, Iberia flying to more destinations, and British Airways prioritizing more connecting service over London Heathrow.
Aer Lingus struggled more than IAG’s other network airlines during the pandemic, executives said, because it previously relied heavily on tran
