British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG) has unveiled a €1 billion (£830 million) buyback after growing profit last year.
Post-tax profit climbed 2.9% to €2.7 billion in the year to December 31, the airline reported Friday, as revenue took off 9.0% to reach €32.1 billion.
Operating profit surged 22.1% to €4.3 billion in the meantime, beating analysts’ expectations for €3.7 billion.
Demand had remained strong, it said, with passenger numbers increasing 5.6% to 122 million and average load factor climbing 1.2 percentage points to 86.5%.
IAG added British Airways had made progress towards reaching a 15% margin over the medium term, with the figure at 14.2%, as part of a €7 billion transformation plan.
The company’s Spanish businesses had also neared a mid-term profit target of €1.5 billion, IAG said, with earnings of €1.4 billion.
“These results highlight the quality of our businesses and effectiveness of our strategy, underpinned by the successful execution of our transformation programme,” chief executive Luis Gallego commented.
A further €1 billion buyback would be carried out on the back of the figures, the airline announced, while a final €0.06 per share dividend was declared to take the full-year payout to €0.09.