Owner of British Airways brushes off higher fuel prices
THE OWNER of British Airways has posted rising revenue and profit despite an adverse impact from foreign exchange rates and higher fuel costs.
International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) reported a 6.7 per cent increase in revenue to £20.88bn for 2018.
Profit before tax was up 9.8 per cent to £2.6bn.
However, foreign exchange rates had an adverse impact of £110.35m during the year.
Passenger unit revenue – a key industry metric measuring the profitability per available seat – inched up just 0.1 per cent during the period. But with currency effects stripped out, the increase was 2.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, fuel unit costs climbed 8 per cent thanks to last year’s oil price rally.
Asked whether IAG’s airlines had been hit by costs from Brexit on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, chief executive Willie Walsh said: “There are issues from Brexit that we need to address, but these are issues that the industry at large – and certainly IAG – can address without too much concern.” He added: “We remain confident that there will be a comprehensive air transport agreement between the EU and the UK. If you go back a year, people were saying ‘will we be able to fly at all?’ I dismissed all of that and I think I’ve been proven correct.”
Earlier this month, IAG placed a limit on non-EU shareholders, but said that UK residents would be treated in the same way as those from the EU even after Brexit. Mr Walsh said: “This is nothing to do with Brexit.”