31st Oct 2019 08:52
(Alliance News) - International Consolidated Airlines Group SA on Thursday said it had a third quarter revenue rise, but profit was hurt by the recent pilots strike at British Airways.
In the three months to September 30, IAG revenue rose by 2.4% year-on-year to EUR7.31 billion from EUR7.14 billion. Pretax profit however fell by 8.7% to EUR1.26 billion from EUR1.38 billion.
For the nine month period, revenue grew by 5.7% year-on-year to EUR19.40 billion from EUR18.35 billion. Pretax profit was down by 25% to EUR2.27 billion from EUR3.04 billion.
The British Airways owner has been mired in strikes against the carrier by the British Airline Pilots' Association in recent months, and in September alone, planned industrial action led to 2,325 flight cancellations.
IAG said: "The quarter was heavily impacted by industrial action by BALPA pilots, which together with other disruption resulted in an adverse operating profit impact of EUR155 million."
Passenger unit revenue in the third quarter was down 0.5% from last year, 1.1% at constant currency, the FTSE 100 firm said. Fuel unit costs for the quarter shot up 6.1%.
IAG proposed an interim dividend of 14.5 euro cents per share, flat year-on-year.
The airline operator affirmed that it forecasts full-year operating profit before exceptional items to be EUR215 million lower than 2018's pro forma figure of EUR3.49 billion, should current fuel price and exchange rates remain.
IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh said: "These are good underlying results. As we said in September, our performance has been affected by industrial action by pilots' union BALPA and other disruption including threatened strikes by Heathrow airport employees. In addition, our fuel bill increased by EUR136 million during the quarter."
The company, which also operates Spanish carriers Iberia and Vueling and Irish airline Aer Lingus, was earlier in October struck by a further blow after the UK High Court gave thousands of British Airways customers the green light to bring compensation claims against the airline due to an online security breach.
Justice Warby granted a group litigation order at a hearing in London on Friday, paving the way for a mass legal action. The airline suffered a cyber attack on its systems, which an investigation by the UK Information Commissioners Office found affected about 500,000 customers.
IAG shares were flat at 519.80 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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