Operating Evolution

The load factor improved by 1.3 points compared to October 2008, reaching 80.6%. With a reduction of 6.6% in ASK (available seat kilometre), traffic decrease (-5.1%) was lower than in the two previous months, although strong price pressure remained. The activity was affected by the strike of cabin attendants on the 26th and 27th. The cancellation of 363 flights, mostly of short and medium haul, had an impact of 1.3% in the scheduled capacity.

The load factor in the long haul stood at 82.9%, down 0.9 points on the previous year, with a 3.4% capacity reduction and a 4.4% drop in traffic. In Latin America, capacity and traffic fell by 4.1% and 6.1% respectively, leading to a load factor of 82.8% (-1.8 points); the greater capacity decreases were carried out in  Mexico and Colombia.  In the North Atlantic, the load factor improved by 4.2 points reaching 84.2%; traffic rose by 6.9% against a 1.6% increase in capacity (mainly in flights to New York and Boston).

In Europe, the load factor improved by 8.1 points to 80.4%, the highest level for this month in Iberia’s history, with a capacity reduction of 13.7% and a 3.0% increase in the average stage length. In European flights to/from Madrid, the load factor improved by 7.3 points, standing at  80.6%, as capacity reduced by 9.2% and traffic remained stable (-0.2%). In Africa and the Middle East ASK went down 2.8% and traffic fell by 4.7%, leading to a load factor of 77.8% (-1.5 points).

The domestic load factor reached 71.6% (-0.7 points on the previous year), as capacity dropped by 9.4% and traffic decreased by 10.2%. This sector was the most affected by the strike, with the cancellation of 224 flights. Links between the mainland and the Balearic and Canary Islands suffered the lowest decreases of capacity (-2.2%) and traffic (-6.2%).

Highlights

● Iberia is remodeling its intercontinental Business Plus class with the aim of offering more room, comfort and privacy. Room between rows will expand by more than 30 cm, so that each business passenger will enjoy more than 2.20 metres; thus, the new dimensions will allow the seats to reach a fully horizontal position for sleeping. The entire A-340 fleet is expected to be equipped by March 2010.
● Iberia has reached a code-sharing agreement with GOL, the second most important airline of Brazil that will allow it to gain access to the significant Brazilian market through 13 new destinations from the cities where Iberia daily operates (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo).
● In November, 10 Mexicana became official member of oneworld®, the alliance to which Iberia belongs. Its subsidiaries MexicanaClick y MexicanaLink also were incorporated as members. Consequently, oneworld widens its huge network to almost 700 destinations in around 150 countries. The combined fleet come to nearly 2,250 aircraft, which operate more than 8,000 daily flights carrying 325 million passengers and generating $100,000 million per year.

Up