British Airways owner IAG cuts growth forecast
British Airways’ owner International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) cut its growth forecast for the next few years due to an expected slump in passenger capacity growth.
The company said average earnings per share growth would be 10 per cent in the three years from 2020 to 2022, compared to a previous estimate of 12 per cent.
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Growth in available seat kilometres (ASK), a measure of an aeroplane’s carrying capacity available to generate revenues, is expected to be 3.4 per cent, almost halving from a previous forecast of six per cent.
IAG said there was no change to its operating profit margin forecast of between 12 and 15 per cent.
Shares in the company dipped around three per cent to 527.2p following the announcement this morning before recovering to 543.6p
Meanwhile, the company announced that traffic in October was up 4.8 per cent compared to the same month last year, while capacity increased 2.7 per cent.
IAG, which also owns Aer Lingus and Iberia, carried 10.4m passengers in October compared to 10m a year ago. Load factor increased to 85 per cent from 83.3 per cent.
Read more: IAG issues profit warning after British Airways pilot strikes
British Airway’s passenger numbers increased 1.1 per cent to 4.17m last month.
The airline owner announced it will stop reporting monthly traffic and capacity statistics, opting instead to publish quarterly data going forward.
Main image credit: Getty