IAG traffic figures improve despite falling numbers at British Airways

Revenue per passenger kilometre improved to 18,636m.

Yet British Airways traffic dropped 1.6% year-on-year to 11.3m, while Aer Lingus' traffic jumped 6.4%, that at Iberia by 9.9%, and Vueling's leapt ahead 17%.

IAG's Iberia, and its subsidiary Iberia Express, were the most punctual airlines in 2017, according to a list of carriers ranked by FlightStats, with the former ranking number one amongst global airlines for the second year running with 88.97% of flights arriving on time.

Iberia Express touched down 91.77% of its flights on time, making it the most punctual of all low-cost carriers for a fourth consecutive year.

Total passengers carried by IAG moved ahead 7.5% to 7.19m in January, while overall domestic passenger numbers increased 14% to 1.73m and in Europe, the group came in 8.3% higher at 3.58m.

IAG saw passenger numbers drop in the North American and Asia Pacific markets, down 1.1% to 751,000 and 6.8% to 178,000, respectively, but saw smaller upticks of 3.3% in the Latin American and Caribbean market and a 4.3% increase in figures to 513,000 from its Africa, Middle East and South Asia flights.

As of 1700 GMT, shares had slipped 0.60% to 625.80p.