British Airways’ owner IAG is cutting back on its growth plans following the terrorist attacks in Brussels last month.
IAG, which also owns Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus, said that it had “moderated its short-term capacity growth plans” following the attacks in the Belgian capital on March 22 which has had an impact on the firm’s revenue.
The airline group also cited “some softness in underlying premium demand” for its decision to scale back on capacity growth.
IAG still made an operating profit of €155 million for the first quarter of 2016 – up from a profit of €25 million in the same quarter of last year.
This increased profit came as passenger revenue rose by 8 per cent to €4.5 billion during the quarter, while fuel prices fell by 23.4 per cent year-on-year. But average seat revenue fell by 3.5 per cent year-on-year to €6.75.
CEO Willie Walsh said: “This is a good performance with a strong increase in what is traditionally the weakest quarter.
“January and February's revenue was in line with Q4 2015 trends. March revenue was affected by the timing of Easter and the Brussels terrorist attacks with the latter continuing into quarter two.
"Our productivity has improved 5.9 per cent and the underlying non-fuel unit costs performance continued to show improvement across our companies."