LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - British Airways owner IAG said it expected to return to profit in the second quarter despite a "significant" operating loss in the first quarter due to the Omicron Covid variant, seasonal slowdown and capacity rebuilding costs.
The company, which also owns Aer Lingus and Iberia, narrowed 2021 losses to €2.7bn from €7.4bn and said it expected it would hit 85% of pre-pandemic 2019 capacity during the current year.

It said Omicron has hit bookings in January and February, but had a minimal impact on bookings for Easter and summer 2022.

"IAG expects its operating result to be profitable from quarter two, leading both operating profit and net cash flows from operating activities to be significantly positive for the year," the company said.

"This assumes no further setbacks related to Covid-19 and government-imposed travel restrictions or material impact from recent geopolitical developments."

Fourth quarter losses narrowed to €278m from €1.47bn.

Chief executive Luis Gallego said the group's flights were now avoiding Russian airspace for overflights and cancelled its British Airways flight to Moscow after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson banned Russia's flagship airline Aeroflot from Britain.

"The impact for us is not huge because right now we are only flying to a small number of destinations in Asia and we can reroute our flights," he said.

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