London – British Airways owner IAG Group on Friday said it was hit by a slump in the pound following 2016 Brexit referendum in Britain, but that the company nonetheless reported a jump in operating profit.
The airline group, which also owns Iberia, recorded an annual operating profit of 2.65 billion dollars, up 8.6 per cent from the 2.3 billion euros it reported in 2015.
The growth in profit came despite a 1.3 per cent fall in revenue to 22.6 billion euros in 2016.
Low oil prices had allowed the group to cut fuel costs by more than 25 per cent, it said.
Willie Walsh, IAG’s chief executive, said the group had produced “good performance in a challenging environment’’ in 2016.
“Our performance was affected by an adverse currency impact of 460 million euros.
“In particular, this was due to the weak pound following the UK’s EU referendum,’’ Walsh said.
But he said the company had “made good progress’’ despite the impact of the slump in sterling.
“In 2016, we carried more than 100 million passengers double the number British Airways and Iberia carried in 2010, a year before IAG was created,’’ Walsh said.
He said the group planned to launch programmes to buy back shares valued at some 500 million euros this year.
“We have great confidence in IAG’s future prospects and are increasing cash returns to our shareholders,’’ Walsh said.
