British Airways-owner IAG beats quarterly profits forecasts

BRITISH Airways-owner IAG’s quarterly profit beat analyst forecasts by 40 per cent, and it said it was encouraged by the outlook for the summer as demand for leisure travel remains strong.

For the three months to the end of June, the group, which also owns Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, recorded an operating profit before exceptional items of 1.25 billion euros (S$1.82 billion), compared with the 895 million euros analysts were on average expecting.

IAG did not on Friday (Jul 28) provide an update on its guidance, which it lifted in May when it said strong ticket sales would drive annual profit above the top end of a 1.8 billion euros to 2.3 billion euros range given in February.

The group said in a statement on Friday that the focus was on delivering resilient operations over the summer, given the air traffic control and labour dispute challenges in Europe. REUTERS