Aer Lingus & British Airways Owner IAG Reports Profit Surge

Aer Lingus and British Airways owner IAG has reported a strong financial performance for 2024; posting a 9% growth in group revenue and a near 27% increase in profit.

The airline group – which also owns Spanish carriers Iberia, Vueling and LEVEL – said operating profit rose to just over €4.4bn, with revenue up to €32bn; driven by strong leisure passenger business and a recovery in business travel demand.

IAG is also set to return €1bn to shareholders over the coming 12 months through a share buyback programme.

Luis Gallego, IAG Chief Executive, said: “These results highlight the quality of our businesses and effectiveness of our strategy, underpinned by the successful execution of our transformation programme across the Group. We are delivering world-class margins and returns, in line with the targets we set out to the market just over a year ago.

“We are focused on continuing to make our brands the first choice for customers, by growing our network and enhancing the customer proposition, while our disciplined capital allocation ensures we can continue to invest in the business, deliver strong financial results and create sustainable value for our shareholders.

“We are particularly pleased to announce that IAG is proposing a final dividend which takes our total dividend for the year to €435 million and intend to return up to a further €1 billion of excess capital to shareholders in up to 12 months. “This performance would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our people, who continue to drive our Group-wide transformation.”