SHARE OF THE WEEK: Pressure is mounting on IAG as full-year results loom

Shares in IAG, owner of British Airways, have lagged Easyjet, Wizz and Ryanair since the start of the pandemic.

Four years later, there are few signs this will change: Shares in the airline’s owner have fallen about 10 percent in the past 12 months.

Pressure is mounting on IAG – which also owns Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling – to get to work with its annual results on Thursday.

But it’s possibly too big a task for a company that has proven time and time again how unreliable it can be.

There has been turbulence across the airline industry, with flights to and from Israel suspended due to the conflict in the Middle East, rising oil prices and higher labor costs. IAG, however, plans to resume flights from London to Tel Aviv from April.

Analysts expect the company’s fourth-quarter sales to rise 11 per cent to £6bn and its profits to rise by almost a fifth to £434m.

Over the financial year, sales are forecast to rise 27 per cent to a record £21bn, while profits should hit an all-time high of £3bn.

The City will also closely monitor how IAG capacity compares to pre-Covid levels.

And with its debt falling, the company could move toward paying a dividend in 2024 for the first time in four years, according to analysts at investment platform AJ Bell.

IAG, which is worth £7.5bn, will need to produce a major upgrade if it is to catch up with its peers.