The weak pound following the Brexit vote has hit IAG’s full year profits, the group said today.
Announcing it results for the year to December 31, the British Airways and Iberia parent said its performance suffered an adverse currency impact of €460 million, which was in particular due to the weak pound.
Pre-tax profits were €2.4 billion before exceptional items, up 32.7%.
Revenue fell 1.3% and revenue per passenger dropped 5.4%.
Chief executive Willie Walsh said: "For the full year, it was a good performance in a challenging environment with an operating profit of €2,535 million before exceptional items, up 8.6% versus last year.
"Our performance was affected by an adverse currency impact of €460 million. In particular, this was due to the weak pound following the UK’s EU referendum. However, despite that, we’ve made good progress and continue to build on all we’ve achieved in our first five years.
"In 2016, we carried more than 100 million passengers – double the number British Airways and Iberia carried in 2010, a year before IAG was created."
IAG said it intended to carry out a share buyback of €500 million during the course of this year.
Looking forward, the group said it expects operating profit for 2017 to show an improvement year-on-year, at current fuel prices and exchange rates.
