British Airways’ owner IAG has seen its pre-tax losses increase from €358 million to €506 million for the first half of 2013 due to the costs of restructuring Iberia.
While BA recorded an operating profit of €175 million (up from a profit of €13 million in 2012) for the six-month period, struggling Spanish carrier Iberia made a loss of €551 million including restructuring costs of €312 million.
Despite the widening losses, IAG chief executive Willie Walsh called the results “positive” and highlighted a €245 million operating profit for the three months to the end of June with revenue up by 3.4 per cent to €4.8 billion and fuel costs down by 3.9 per cent during the quarter.
“Several factors have contributed to this improvement,” said Walsh. “Firstly, the benefits of Iberia's restructuring are beginning to show. Having reduced capacity at Iberia in the first quarter, costs began to be taken out in the second quarter.
“British Airways' performance has improved with operating profit up from €94 million in 2012 to €247 million [in the second quarter].
“The London market and transatlantic traffic remains strong, legacy costs from the bmi integration have ended and the airline remains focused on cost control.”
BA was responsible for 73 per cent or €6.5 billion of IAG’s overall revenue in the first half of 2013. IAG was also boosted by its new acquisition Vueling making an operating profit of €27 million.