British Airways-owner IAG (ICAG.L) reported on Friday its first annual profit since the pandemic and forecast earnings could jump almost 90% this year as business continues to rebound.
Chief Executive Luis Gallego said IAG, which also owns Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus, was seeing robust forward bookings, although it remained conscious of the global macro-economic uncertainties.
The group agreed on Thursday to pay 400 million euros ($423.84 million) to Spain’s Globalia for the remaining 80% of Spain-based Air Europa it did not already own, a deal aimed at expanding its position in the Latin American market.
IAG reported an operating profit of 1.22 billion euros for 2022 and forecast 2023 operating profit in the range of 1.8 billion euros to 2.3 billion euros. That would still be well below pre-pandemic levels of 3.3 billion euros in 2019.
Operating profit in 2022 was just ahead of analyst expectations for 1.196 billion euros and overturned two years of losses when COVID-19 travel restrictions hit airlines across the world.
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