IAG share price surges as group reports July traffic

International Consolidated Airlines Group’s (LON:IAG) share price has advanced in today’s session as the company updated investors on its July traffic. The update comes after its British Airways unit suffered a glitch earlier in the week, with problems with the carrier’s IT systems leaving passengers facing flight delays and long queues at airports in the midst of the peak summer holiday period.

As of 14:41 BST, IAG’s share price had added 1.90 percent to 465.50p. The stock is outperforming the broader UK market, with the FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.67 percent higher at 7,246.71 points. The group’s shares have given up nearly a third of their value over the past year, as compared with a near seven-percent dip in the blue-chip benchmark.

IAG posts July traffic

IAG announced in a statement today that its traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, had increased by 4.9 percent last night as compared with July last year. The company’s capacity measured in available seat kilometres meanwhile rose by 3.9 percent year-on-year.

The group disclosed that it had enjoyed strong growth in its low-cost transatlantic carrier Level, whose passenger numbers soared 392.3 percent, even as the airline’s passenger load factor fell by 7.2 percentage points. The FTSE 100 company also updated investors on its aircraft, saying that Aer Lingus had taken delivery of its first Airbus 321neo LR aircraft, and that British Airways had received its first Airbus 350-1000 aircraft.

The update came after IAG recently posted its half-year results, reporting a rise in profit despite fuel costs headwinds.

Analyst ratings update

Royal Bank of Canada, which rates the British Airways and Iberia parent as a ‘buy,’ set a target on the IAG share price of 650p today. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus ‘buy’ rating and an average valuation of 643.58p.