Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — The parent company of British Airways and Iberia said on Friday it expects to return to profit in the current quarter and stay profitable for the rest of the year, despite another hefty loss in the first quarter.

International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:) said the rebound in travel demand had suffered only a short-term hit from the winter wave of Omicron-variant COVID-19 and none at all from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Demand is recovering strongly in line with our previous expectations,” said chief executive Luis Gallego. “We expect to be profitable from the second quarter onwards and for the full year.”

Group will fly at 80% capacity for 2019 in the current quarter. That’s up from 65% during the first quarter. In the summer it will be 85% and then 90% respectively. Because of the strong demand in premium leisure, key North Atlantic routes should be close to prepandemic capacity by the end of the third quarter. The U.S. competitor also stated that business travel has returned to its peak level since the pandemic.

After a string of operational problems during the first quarter that included a February software outage, which led to massive cancellations, the group stated it would focus on the immediate future in restoring its reputation.

These problems were made more difficult by the widespread shortage of staff, not to mention Omicron.

“The airline’s focus at the moment is on improving operations and customer experience and enhancing operational resilience,” Gallego said.

The first quarter’s revenue jumped fivefold to 2.65 billion euro, which allowed it to reduce its operating loss by 731 million euros, from 1.14 billion euros the year before. The net debt decreased to 11.59 Billion by the end.