By Anthony O. Goriainoff
International Consolidated Airlines Group said net profit for 2023 soared and beat consensus as travel demand remained strong, and that the board was committed to sustainable shareholder value creation and cash returns.
The airline group–which houses British Airways, Iberia, and Vueling among others–said its net profit was 2.66 billion euros ($2.88 billion) compared with EUR431 million the year before and Visible Alpha revenue consensus of GBP2.31 billion.
Pretax profit for the year was EUR3.06 billion, compared with a pretax profit of EUR415 million and pretax profit consensus of EUR2.92 billion, taken from FactSet and based on six analysts’ forecasts.
Revenue for the year rose to EUR29.45 billion from EUR23.07 billion the year before. Visible Alpha revenue consensus was EUR29.34 billion.
Operating profit before exceptional items–the company’s preferred metric which strips out exceptional and other one-off items–was EUR3.51 billion, compared with an operating profit of EUR1.23 billion in 2022 and company-compiled consensus range of EUR3.31 billion to EUR3.84 billion.
Capacity for the fourth quarter was at 98.6% of the levels seen in 2019, with full-year capacity at 95.7% of those levels.
The company said it expects to grow capacity by around 7% in 2024.
Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com
