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International Consolidated Airlines Group SA on Friday said it swung to a profit in 2022, led by higher passenger numbers, as more took to the skies after Covid-19 curbs eased.
The London-based British Airways parent reported a pretax profit of €415 million for 2022, swinging from a loss of €3.51 billion in 2021. In 2019, the airline reported a pretax profit of €2.28 billion.
Operating profit was €1.26 billion, 4.7% higher than the median company-compiled consensus of €1.20 billion, which had a range of €1.07 billion to €1.40 billion. It swung from an operating loss of €2.77 billion in 2021, but 2022’s figures were less than half of 2019’s operating profit of €2.61 billion.
Revenue jumped to €23.07 billion from €8.46 billion in 2021, but was 9.6% below 2019’s €25.51 billion. Passenger revenue surged to €19.46 billion from €5.84 billion, but 13% below €22.47 billion in 2019.
Fuel, oil costs and emissions charges surged to €6.12 billion from €1.78 billion in 2021 and were 1.6% higher than €6.02 billion in 2019.
Employee costs surged 54% to €4.65 billion from €3.01 billion, but were 6.3% below 2019 levels of €4.96 billion.
Looking ahead, IAG expects 2023 operating profit before exceptional items to be between €1.8 billion and €2.3 billion, above 2022’s €1.23 billion but at least 30% lower than €3.29 billion in 2019.
It anticipates an operating loss of around €200 million in the first quarter of 2023, narrowed from €731 million a year prior, assuming no material impacts from geopolitical developments or setbacks related to Covid. In the first quarter of 2019, it posted an operating profit of €135 million.
Further, it anticipates capital expenditure of around €4.0 billion for 2023, up 3.2% from €3.88 billion in 2021 but far below 2019’s €12.83 billion. The company’s outlook is based on forward jet fuel prices and spot foreign exchange rates of Thursday.
IAG declared no dividend for 2022, unchanged from 2021. In 2019, it paid a dividend of 17.0 euro cents per share.
IAG shares were 1.9% lower at 162.34 pence each in London on Friday morning.
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