Premium traffic on BA and Iberia rose by 8.7% in August, compared with last year, the International Airlines Group (IAG) said today (September 5).
During the month, Group revenues rose by 2.2% while capacity was up by 2.1%. Overall load factors were up 0.1% from 84.8% to 84.9%.
But there was only a 1.4% increase in non-premium traffic.
Both airlines also reported heavy falls in their domestic markets.
IAG, formed after the merger of the UK and Spanish national carriers, said the figures were in line with expectations.
They are released against a background of expansion by both carriers, including increased frequency on some routes and a major pilot recruitment drive by BA.
But a detailed look at the figures reveals that the number of passengers both airlines carried compared with August last year fell by 3.6%, from 5m to 4.85m.
There was also a major fall in domestic markets, with IAG saying these had dropped by 22.5% compared with 2010. This saw a fall in passenger numbers from 1.6m to 899,000.
There was also a drop of 9.6% in passengers to Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
But IAG said traffic in other regions had increased, including Europe (1.4%), North America (5.5%), Latin America (9.8%) and Asia Pacific (6.2%).