The International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) reported on Friday a fourth quarter operating profit of €765 million and a full year 2019 operating profit of €3.285 billion, a 5.7 percent decline year-over year.
On Friday, the International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) reported a fourth quarter operating profit (before exceptional items) of €775 million and a full year operating profit of €3.285 billion, a 5.7 percent decline versus 2018. During the fourth quarter, passenger unit revenue increased 2.2 percent, non-fuel unit costs decreased 1.7 percent and fuel increased 5.6 percent. For the full year, passenger unit revenue increased 1.0 percent, non-fuel costs declined 0.9 percent and fuel costs increased 9.6%. IAG reported a favorable foreign exchange impact of €79 million for the fourth quarter and €67 million for the full year. The Group also reported a final proposed dividend of €0.17/share. In Friday’s announcement, IAG’s Chief Executive Officer, Willie Walsh said,
“In 2019 we’re reporting an operating profit of €3,285 million before exceptional items, down by €200 million compared to last year. At constant currency, passenger unit revenue decreased by 0.5 percent, while airline non-fuel unit costs were down 0.9 percent. These are good results in a year affected by disruption and higher fuel prices. We demonstrated our robust and flexible model once again through additional cost control and by reducing capacity growth to reflect market conditions. We’ve increased investment in new aircraft, customer products and operational resilience and this has seen our airlines improve their customer performance this year. Quarter 4 was strong with an operating profit of €765 million before exceptional items. We’re pleased to confirm that the Board is proposing a final dividend of 17.0 euro cents per share. This brings the full year dividend to 31.5 euro cents per share, subject to shareholder approval at our AGM in June. In total, we will have returned more than €4.4 billion to our shareholders since 2015.”
As a result of COVID-19, IAG is experiencing reduced demand on Asian and European routes. British Airways suspended flights to Beijing and Shanghai on January 29thand Iberia suspended service to Shanghai on January 31st. Additionally, from February 13th, British Airways reduced their daily service to Hong Kong from two flights to one and will reduce service to Seoul to 3-4 times weekly from March 13th. Excess long-haul capacity is being redeployed on other routes including India, South Africa, the US and high-demand domestic routes. Capacity on Italian routes have been substantially reduced for March and IAG expects to reduce capacity across their short-haul network, without redeployment at this time.
The International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) is one of the leading airline groups in the world and includes member airlines Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Level and Air Europa. Combined, IAG member airlines operate 573 aircraft serving 268 destinations worldwide and carry nearly 120 million passengers annually. The company is registered in Spain and shares in the Group are traded on both the London and Spanish Stock Exchanges. At the close of markets on Friday, shares in the International Consolidates Airlines Group (IAG: LN) traded 8.42% lower at GBp 472.00/share.
Source: International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG)