British Airways benefited from business travelers rerouting to avoid the Middle East in the first half of the year, but owner International Airlines Group flattened its capacity growth outlook due to the conflict.
IAG said overall capacity decreased by 0.1% on year in the first half of the year to June, weighed down by a 17% reduction in capacity on its Africa, Middle East and Asia flights in the second quarter.
British Airways benefited from additional demand from customers, particularly corporate travelers using its routes to elude the Middle East, IAG said.
The business has also deployed incremental capacity to destinations like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore "to capture the demand from travelers avoiding the Middle East," it said.
Since British Airways has increased flights to parts of Asia that would previously have seen high transfer traffic via the Gulf, the business is benefiting from customers not connecting via the Middle East, a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
The airline group, which also counts Iberia and Aer Lingus as part of its portfolio, has been softening its capacity expectations as conflict in the Middle East continues to weigh on flight volumes.
The group had initially expected capacity to grow 3% for the year. In its first-quarter results earlier this year, the group said it expected to increase capacity--measured by available seat kilometers--by around 1% in second quarter and by 2% in the third quarter.
On Friday, it stripped its capacity growth expectations to be flat on year.
Operating result before exceptional items was 1.41 billion euros for the second quarter, while analysts expected the metric to be 1.37 billion euros ($1.58 billion) for the quarter, according to median company-compiled estimates.
Net profit attributable to shareholders for the first half was 1.03 billion euros, compared with 1.3 billion euros the same period last year.
The airline group said revenue in the second quarter rose 0.2% to 8.88 billion euros.
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