(News Bulletin 247) – International Airlines Group (IAG) announced on Friday that it has raised its earnings forecast for 2023 after returning to profit in the first quarter.

Thanks to the strength of demand in the airline sector, the owner of the airlines British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling generated an operating profit of nine million euros in the first three months of the year, compare with a loss of 718 million euros a year earlier.

This is its first profit in a first quarter since the 2019 financial year.

‘If the figure is symbolic, it is a performance above expectations and surprisingly solid knowing that the first quarter is traditionally the quietest period of the year’, react the analysts of Liberum.

As a result, the holding company now says it expects annual operating profit, excluding exceptional items, above the range of between 1.8 and 2.3 billion euros that it had previously communicated.

In its press release, IAG reports “encouraging” prospects, with a level of reservations for the summer which has already reached 80% of its estimated turnover for the period.

Regarding the entire financial year, the group explains that it expects capacities equivalent to around 97% of those of the 2019 financial year, that is to say before the Covid epidemic.

Following these announcements, the title climbed 4.7% Friday morning on the London Stock Exchange.

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