Internation Airlines Group, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, has reported a second quarter profit of 190 million euros but warned high fuel costs could dent full year results.
The company is benefitting from a recovery in demand for business travel, especially between London Heathrow and New York.
That has helped offset higher fuel costs. IAG said fuel costs rose 34.8% to 2.439 million euros in the period and that it expected its full-year fuel bill to come in at around 5.2 billion euros.
“We expect significant growth in operating profit this year, with improvements in both our unit revenue and unit cost performance versus 2010 and are on track to reach our synergy targets,” chief executive Willie Walsh said.
“Although we achieved 50% recovery of the fuel cost impact in the first-half through revenue initiatives, it should be noted that this task becomes progressively harder through the year as we face tougher revenue comparables with last year.”
The company added that its long haul business remained stable, with strength in the premium sector, but that the short haul European market remains highly competitive.
The same period last year saw the company make an operating loss of 71 million euros.