IAG reports 141 per cent increase in profit to €555 million

Operating profit at British Airways parent IAG soared 141 per cent to €555 million for the six months to the end of June, up from €230 million last year.

The higher operating profit followed an 11.6 per cent increase in revenue to €10.3 billion for the six months, up from €9.2 billion last year.

The profit after tax for the six month period to the end of June 2015 was €332 million. The group’s cash position was €6.4 billion up €1.4 billion at the end of December 2014.

IAG chief executive officer Willie Walsh said the airlines group made an operating profit of €530 million in the second quarter, up from a €380 million operating profit last year.

British Airways made a profit of €453 million, Iberia made a profit of €51 million and Vueling’s profit was €24 million on top of a 13.9 per cent capacity increase.

He said IAG expects to generate an operating profit in excess of €2.2 billion this year.

“We said previously that profit improvement would be slower in the second quarter and we are on track to reach our full year targets,” he added.

Meanwhile, IAG has secured the agreement of more than 62.4 per cent of shareholders for the €1.3 billion takeover of Aer Lingus. The group has also announces that the offer will remain open for acceptance until August 18th.

Ryanair has said it does not intend to formally accept a bid for its 30 per cent stake in Aer Lingus until mid-August.

“We don’t expect to receive any proceeds from the sale of our stake in Aer Lingus until September and so we plan to formally submit our signed acceptance of the IAG offer in mid-August,” Ryanair said in a statement.

Earlier this month, IAG extended the deadline for the offer to midday on Thursday, July 30th, saying it needed 90 per cent of Aer Lingus shareholders to accept.

IAG and AERL Holding have now waived the 90 per cent acceptance condition and confirmed the offer is now unconditional as to acceptances.