International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:ICAG) SA (LSE:IAG) returned to profit for the first time since the pandemic in the second quarter, it said in a statement today.
The owner of airlines such as British Airways and Iberia posted a pre-tax profit of €73mln for the second quarter, up from a loss of more than €1.12bn in the equivalent period of 2021. Operating profits before exceptional items came in at €287mln in the quarter, compared with a loss of €1.04bn.
"In the second quarter we returned to profit for the first time since the start of the pandemic following a strong recovery in demand across all our airlines,” said IAG’s chief executive Luis Gallego.
“This result supports our outlook for a full-year operating profit. Our performance reflected a significant increase in capacity, load factor and yield compared to the first quarter.”
The group's revenues soared 323% to €9.35bn in the first half of the year, up from €2.21bn in the first six months of 2021, according to its financial statement.
Overall passenger revenue increased nearly seven-fold to €7.6bn, as the group hit 72% of overall pre-pandemic capacity, up from 20.8% in the first half of 2021.
This was during a period in which airlines suffered from unprecedented operational staffing shortages, higher employee costs, and airports such as Heathrow moved to cap passenger numbers.
Following bottlenecks at Heathrow, British Airways’ capacity was 69.1% of 2019 levels in the second quarter, up from 57.4% in the first quarter, IAG said.
The group said it now expects to post a positive operating profit for the full year 2022, excluding exceptional items, assuming “no further setbacks” related to Covid-19.
The airline conglomerate reduced its first-half pre-tax loss by 63.9% to € 843m, down from €2.33bn.