British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG) has unveiled a €350 million (£291 million) share buyback after a jump in operating profit over the third quarter.
Operating profit grew 15.4% to €2.01 billion over the three months to September on the back of a 7.9% increase in revenue to €9.33 billion, IAG reported on Friday.
This came on strong demand in IAG’s core markets, supporting a 1.2% increase in passenger unit revenue, while operating margins climbed 1.4% to 21.6%.
“We achieved a very strong financial performance in [the third quarter],” chief executive Luis Gallego commented, “this is due to the effectiveness of our strategy and group-wide transformation.
“We are also delivering on our commitment to provide sustainable returns for shareholders.
“Demand remains strong across our airlines and we expect a good final quarter of 2024 financially.”
British Airways was said to have been “particularly strong,” as North Atlantic passenger unit revenue climbed 3.5% and load factors increased as capacity was ramped up.
“All of our short-haul airlines saw good [...] performance across Europe,” the airline added, while demand remained strong in Latin America, where IAG said capacity had grown 10.7%.
Challenges persisted throughout the rest of the world, which IAG said accounted for 15% of its capacity, with passenger revenue slumping 15% in the Asia Pacific region as pre-Covid routes were restored.
IAG guided for capacity growth to sit at 6% for the full-year, against 6.9% in the nine months to September.