Air France KLM, Europe's largest airline, saw a 56% leap in operating profits for the second quarter of 2005-2006 from €339m to €528m.
The carrier also reported turnover was up by 10% to €5.64bn and a net profit of €717m which included €504m from the sale of its stake in Amadeus.
First half year operating profit rose by 46% to €750m while net profit was €829m.
Commenting on the figures, Air France chairman and ceo Jean-Cyril Spinetta said: "The merger between Air France and KLM is increasingly confirming its success.
"These very strong interim results reflect the strategic rationale of the merger and validate our strategy of profitable growth.
"The merger synergies are now feeding through strongly and, combined with our ongoing cost control measures, have led to a significant improvement in our profitability.
"The strong traffic which we are continuing to see, together with the level of our advance
bookings, make us confident that we will be able to sustain these good results over the year as a
whole."
Drop in profit after disposals for IHG
The InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) saw its operating profits for the third quarter of 2005 drop from £102m to £87m after the continuing sale of hotels.
However the hotel division of the group showed a 22% rise in operating profit for the three months up to September 30 of £56m compared to £46m for the same period in 2004.
The hotels also reported an across the board rise of 8.8% in revenue per available room (revPAR) with the strongest trading in the Americas where revPAR increased by 11%
In Europe revPAR rose across the region by 5.2%. In France it rose by 3.1% and in Germany by 3.7% while in the UK, IHG said the London bombs had "some impact on occupancy" but this was now recovering.
Andrew Cosslett, the ceo, said: "Our hotel operating system continues to strengthen with the number of room nights we deliver to our hotels on the rise.
"Trading in two of our key markets, the US and the UK remained strong and we saw revPAR growth in each of our three regions."
Mr Cosslett said IHG remained committed to its policy of hotel sales "when the time is right." It has so far sold more than 140.