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British Airways owner IAG’s profits hit £3bn by 2023, more than double the previous year
IAG, owner of British Airways, has posted record annual profits, but a lack of dividends and weakness in business travel have failed to attract investors.
Profits reached £3bn in 2023, more than doubling the previous year and surpassing the previous record of £2.8bn in 2019.
It came as the company, which owns airlines including Iberia and Aer Lingus as well as BA, said passenger revenue rose 33 per cent year-on-year to £22bn, as consumers go on holiday after the pandemic.
It said its airlines had bookings of 92 percent for the first quarter of the year and 62 percent for the first half.
But the return of business travel has been slower.
Overall, this meant IAG flew 95 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity last year, in contrast to low-cost airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair, which have been flying above 2019 levels.
At BA, capacity recovered to 90.1 percent of 2019 levels due to the slower rebound in Asia Pacific.
In 2023, IAG airlines carried 115 million passengers.
In 2019 this figure was 118 million. Meanwhile, its shares are down almost 70 percent since the lockdown began in 2020.
Mark Crouch, an analyst at Etoro, said investors had lost confidence in IAG, adding: “A reintroduction of the dividend would go some way to attracting new investors, while signaling management confidence that the turmoil of the pandemic is now behind us.”
IAG has not paid dividends since 2019 and has £7.9bn of debt.