British Airways: May Raise Ticket Prices After the Peak Summer Season

British Airways stated that compared to airlines that mainly serve vacationers, the company's customer base structure gives it more room to raise ticket prices after the summer travel season.

Bloomberg reported that Sean Doyle, the CEO of British Airways' parent company International Airlines Group (IAG), said at the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Saturday (June 6th): "For a brand like British Airways, which has many long-haul routes, a large number of business passengers and many premium cabins, we expect the extent of the price increase transmission to be greater than that of airlines that only compete in short-haul leisure markets." However, he also emphasized: "What will happen after the summer depends on the market situation." When IAG announced its results in May, it said it planned to offset about 60% of fuel expenses by increasing revenue and cutting costs. The group expects that due to the increase in oil prices caused by the war in the Middle East, the fuel cost in 2026 will be about 2 billion euros more than before. Doyle pointed out that for business travelers, price increases are often not the key factor in deciding whether to travel or not. "When people go on business trips to negotiate business deals or sign contracts, a little higher airfare usually won't affect their decision to go or not." Currently, the global aviation industry is all suffering from the fuel cost pressure brought by the conflict in Iran. Air France-KLM chose to suspend recruitment and cut some non-essential expenses including employee travel to cope with it. Lufthansa in Germany, on the other hand, compressed costs by increasing ticket revenue and closing its regional airline CityLine.