IAG increases its profit by 43.8% in the first half of the year, reaching €1.301 billion.

Iberia owner International Airlines Group (IAG) posted €1.301 billion in the first half of 2025 , up 43.8% from its post-tax profit in the first six months of 2024. The group claims to have had a solid first half of the year, supported by "robust demand" that, it says, has generated positive results, margin growth, and strong shareholder returns.

The company's revenue for this period reached €15.906 billion , 8% higher than the previous year. For the airline, this increase "reflects the strong demand" for its network and brands, adding that strong demand continues. In contrast, total expenses rose to €14.028 billion , a 4.6% year-over-year increase.

Meanwhile, operating profit rose 43.5% to €1.878 billion , driven by revenue, fuel, and exchange rates. Fuel costs are expected to be around €7.1 billion, according to the aviation fuel futures curve and exchange rates as of June 30, 2025.

The group's CEO, Luis Gallego, noted that these results "reflect the resilience of travel demand " and the "success" of the company's ongoing transformation , the goal of which is to achieve operating margins of between 12% and 15% in the medium term, a return on invested capital of between 13% and 16%, and net leverage of less than 1.8x over the cycle. To achieve this, they state, they have three strategic imperatives: the transformation of British Airways; strengthening its Spanish platforms, with a new medium-term ambition for Iberia to achieve €1.4 billion in operating profit and a margin of between 13.5% and 15%; and growth of IAG Loyalty through increased profits and cash generation.

Furthermore, he emphasized that these results provide the confidence necessary to achieve "good profit growth" for the year as a whole, which will allow them to create value for shareholders through their "sustainable dividend" and share buybacks. It is worth noting that Iberia's parent company returned €1.5 billion in cash to its shareholders in 2025 through dividends and share buybacks.

In this regard, in November 2024 they announced a €350 million share buyback , and in their full-year results, they point out, they announced their intention to return up to €1 billion to shareholders within 12 months. They continue, "As of July 25, we had repurchased approximately €650 million of this €1 billion program, with the intention of completing the buybacks before the end of November 2025."

As for the dividend , they claim to have paid the complementary dividend corresponding to 2024, which brings the total dividend to 427 million euros, or 0.09 euros per share .

Between January and June, the group's airlines increased their capacity by 2.7% (average seat kilometers offered) and achieved a passenger load factor of 84.1%, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points. This, they state, reflects the growth of the Group's airlines' fleets, including the introduction of Airbus A321XLR aircraft at Aer Lingus and Iberia.

However, not all of the group's airlines saw growth. Iberia achieved an operating profit of €564 million, up 55.8% year-on-year; while Vueling recorded a drop in profit of up to 2%, at €95 million. The airline with the highest profit was British Airways, with a 229% increase compared to the first half of 2024, reaching £1,824 million (approximately €2.1 billion). Finally, the Irish airline Aer Lingus earned €80 million, an increase of €71 million compared to the previous year.