Iberia March Traffic Falls 7.3 Percent

Iberia's March passenger traffic fell 7.3 percent year on year, the Spanish airline said on Tuesday, as recession-hit passengers cut back on travel and the Easter holidays took place in April.

However, despite missing out on Easter week traffic, the March drop in revenue passenger kilometres -- the distance flown by paying passengers -- was less severe than in January and February when traffic fell 12 and 10.7 percent respectively.

Iberia -- which is in talks to merge with British Airways -- said its load factor slipped to 78.7 percent compared with 81.8 percent a year earlier.

Iberia's capacity was 3.6 percent lower than in March 2008.

Demand has fallen sharply since last September when Spain began its slide into one of Europe's worst recessions. The Bank of Spain has forecast GDP will fall 3 percent this year, and the destruction of Spain's building sector has had a severe effect on business travel, analysts say.