British Airways’ parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) said its operating profit surged by 22.1% last year to 4.3 billion euros (£3.6 billion). That is up from 3.5 billion euros (£2.9 billion) in 2023. The company attributed the increase to “the successful execution of our transformation programme”.
IAG said its available seat kilometres – a measure of its capacity – grew by 6.2% in 2024. It is proposing to pay a final dividend to shareholders for 2024 which will take the total payments to 435 million euros (£359 million). IAG chief executive Luis Gallego 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 euros and intend to return up to a further one billion euros (£826 million) of excess capital to shareholders in up to 12 months.”.
IAG recorded a revenue growth of 9.0%, which it said was driven by “our market-leading network, strong brands and operational focus”. British Airways made an operating profit of £2.0 billion, up from £1.3 billion in 2023. That was secured with a 14.2% margin.
