The losses grew despite a 7.8% increase in revenues in the period to €3,919 million.

Fuel costs in the period leaped 24.9% to €1,409 million and non fuel costs rose 5.7%.

Passenger unit revenue for the quarter was up 8.5%.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of IAG, said: “Total revenue in the quarter was up 7.8% with passenger unit revenue up 8.5% based on a capacity increase of 0.6%. Despite this, we’ve made an operating loss of €249 million before exceptional items. This is mainly due to a €281 million, 24.9% rise in fuel costs, driven by higher prices, the reduced impact of hedging and emissions charges. The Iberia pilots’ strike cost €25 million this quarter.

“Iberia’s overall operating loss for the quarter was €170 million (2011: €100 million operating loss) and British Airways’ operating loss was £62 million before exceptional items (2011: £5 million operating loss). Iberia’s performance reflects the weakness of the Spanish domestic market and industrial action by pilots opposed to actions by Iberia’s management to improve the airline’s efficiencies. For British Airways, although the London market and demand for transatlantic travel remains strong, its performance has been affected by rising fuel costs.

“The financial performance of our business continues to be undermined by government actions. In addition to the UK government increasing the world’s highest aviation tax – Air Passenger Duty – by double the inflation rate, the Spanish government plans to increase departure taxes from Spain by up to €10 per passenger.”

Operating income in the year dropped 16% by $13 million in the first quarter to $66 million. It had been $79 million in Q1 2011.

Total segments at the GDSGlobal distribution system – international computer reservation systems which amalgamate the content and enable booking on multiple suppliers increased 2.4% to 98 million. The volume of segments in Europe fell 1.9%.

Gordon Wilson, President and CEO of Travelport, said, “This quarter has seen significant enhancements in our geographical position in the key growth regions of Asia as we continue to execute on our strategy. Financial performance was solid and in line with our expectations, and we successfully restructured our near term debt.”

The half-year results also show that total revenue leaped 15.7% from £1,266 million to £1,465 million.

Total revenue per seat grew by 11.9% to £50.47. However, total cost per seat excluding fuel grew by 2.1% to £37.70.

EasyJet says that there has been “an £87 million increase in its unit fuel costs”.

Carolyn McCall, Chief Executive Officer of easyJet, said:

“In the first six months of the year easyJet has continued to deliver improvements in customer satisfaction, operational, and financial performance. We have also returned £196 million to our shareholders.

“The economic environment remains uncertain, and the aviation industry faces headwinds such as the recent increase in UK APD [air passenger duty]. However, easyJet’s strategy of low fares and our focus on making it easy for our customers, aligned with tight cost management and strictly managed allocation of capital, ensures that easyJet is well positioned to deliver good results for shareholders.”

The losses grew despite an increase of 5.5% in passenger traffic and an increase in passenger load factor of 3.1 percentage points to 81.6%.

Total passenger revenues grew by 8.8% in the period to €4,430 million.

Unit revenue per available seat kilometre rose by 5.6%.

However, these gains were exceeded by an increase in operating costs of 9%. Fuel costs rose by €255 million (17.9%) to €1.68 billion.

First quarter 2012 adjusted pre-tax income was $29.4 million, versus an adjusted pre-tax loss of $16.0 million in the same period in 2011.

Worldwide rental rate revenue per transaction (RPD) for the quarter decreased 3.9%. Hertz said that RPD was affected by the growth in off-airport rentals which include replacement rentals, which have longer rental lengths, and therefore a lower average RPD. The report pointed out that off airport rental profit contribution was growing significantly.

Mark P. Frissora, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are gratified by strong first quarter 2012 results, further validating our long-term, balanced approach to running global businesses, which generated double-digit revenue and profit growth despite difficult conditions in Europe.”

• The GTMC quarterly transaction survey has reported growth in car rental transactions of 10% in the first quarter of 2012. It is the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth and has prompted chief executive Anne Godfrey to say, “Car hire continues to outperform other modes of travel with a fifth quarter of double digit growth.”

The parent company to Lufthansa, Swiss, Germanwings and Austrian Airlines said that higher passenger volume and fares had contributed to higher passenger revenues – an increase of 5.6% to €5.3billion – but that the results were adversely affected by higher operating costs, notably fuel, air traffic tax in Germany and Austria and provision for the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Christoph Franz, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said, “Higher taxes, fees and charges put a massive strain on our quarterly result. It was well down on last year despite record revenue. We cannot wait until politicians also recognise the damage that one-sided taxes and charges do to aviation and to Europe’s reputation as a place to do business.”

Underlying profit before tax up 11.3% to £320.1 million.

The report says that Premier Inn grew total sales by 8.3%, with RevPAR “outperforming against its competitive set”.

Whitbread defines the competitive set as midscale and economy hotels as grouped by STR Global.

Chief executive Andy Harrison said, “We remain on track to achieve our five year growth milestones. In Premier Inn UK, we have nearly 58,000 rooms in our existing estate and committed pipeline, taking us towards our 2016 milestone of 65,000 rooms.”

Its consolidated passenger revenue for January-March 2012 increased 5.5% from that achieved in the first quarter of 2011. Consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM)in Q1 rose 5.2%.

Passenger revenue in the first three months on Atlantic routes was $1,189 million, an increase of 6.2% over the first quarter of 2011.

Jeff Smisek, UAL’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “This was a difficult quarter, but we made significant progress with our integration and we’re now able to serve our customers as a single airline.”

Delta’s passenger unit revenues increased 14%. Its overall passenger revenues increased 10% from that in the first quarter of 2011; its revenues on Atlantic routes rose 11% in the quarter.

Delta’s operating costs excluding fuel increased $80 million in the quarter.