British Airways boosts IAG profits

Profit after tax for the quarter also grew 27.6 percent to 358 million euros from 280 million euros in the year-ago quarter.

Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh has driven productivity gains at BA, Iberia and the Vueling discount arm and is close to bolstering the group’s position on North American routes with the acquisition of Ireland’s Aer Lingus Group Plc. Average fares slipped in the quarter as competition on the trans-Atlantic increased, Walsh said, while reiterating that full-year earnings should exceed 2.2 billion euros.

“In the half year, we made an operating profit of €555m which is up from a €230m operating profit last year”.

“A key metric for Aer Lingus, going forward, in attracting competing IAG capital will be to be one of the airlines generating returns greater than 12% and margins in the 10%-14% range”.

“At constant currency, revenue was down 1.2 per cent with passenger unit revenue down 6.6 per cent”.

It is prevented by stock exchange rules from issuing FY2015 profit guidance while under offer from IAG, but it says that it expects an improved operating performance for 3Q and for the full year.

Directly-carried passenger numbers fell slightly during the period while revenues during the quarter – covering early summer months, was more than 3 percent lower.

The Aer Lingus Airbus A320-200 had received clearance for take off, and had begun to increase its speed down the runway.

In Friday’s regular trading session in London, IAG.L is now trading on the LSE at 546.50 pence, up 4.50 pence or 0.83% on a volume of 0.91 million shares.