International Airlines Group saw traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres increase by 10.6 per cent last month when compared to December 2012, according to the latest figures from the European giant.

Group capacity measured in available seat kilometres rose by 9.1 per cent over the same period.

All important group premium traffic for the month of December increased by 7.3 per cent compared to the previous year, with a greater increase in load factor than that experienced in the non-premium cabin.

The group controls both British Airways and Iberia.

On December 2nd, Iberia announced that it has completed the reorganisation of its management team as part of its restructuring plan.

The total number of management positions has been reduced by 48 per cent from 399 to 208.

In addition, Iberia announced the reduction of the minimum connecting time between its flights at Terminal 4 in Madrid-Barajas airport enabling an additional 1,200 flight connections to be made each week.

On December 10th, British Airways announced that it is extending the number of routes operated by its new A380 and 787 fleets.

The A380 will start services to Washington DC from September 2014, having already announced it will operate to Johannesburg in February 2014.

The aircraft is already flying to Los Angeles and Hong Kong.

The 787s will be operated on flights to Hyderabad from March, Chengdu from May, Philadelphia from June and Calgary from July 2014.

British Airways cancelled around 200 flights on December 7th, due to a technical failure at UK NATS.