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IAG Holds Margin Guidance as Fuel Bites

IAG's third-quarter revenue rose 4.5% on strong transatlantic pricing, but fuel and disruption squeezed the operating margin to 17.7%. Full-year guidance held, and the shares were lower in early trade.

International Consolidated Airlines Group (LSE: IAG), parent of British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus, reported third-quarter revenue up 4.5% to €9,744m, with the operating margin down to 17.7%. The shares were down about 2.2% in early trade on Friday.

At 08:06 London time the shares stood at 417.7p, 9.5p below yesterday’s close of 427.2p, within an intraday range so far of 411.2p to 418.7p. That is 0.8% up for the year but 15.3% below the 52-week high of 492.9p.

IAG.LSE

Demand carried the top line. Passenger revenue per available seat kilometre, a measure of revenue earned per unit of capacity, rose 4.1%, led by North Atlantic unit revenue, which jumped 11.0%. Europe unit revenue rose 2.3%.

Profit fell, though. Operating profit before exceptional items, which strips out one-offs, dropped 15.9% to €1,726m. Fuel cost rose 30.4% after hedging, and non-fuel unit cost rose 3.4% on air traffic control outages and other disruption.

€mQ3 2026Q3 2025
Revenue9,7449,328
Operating profit before exceptionals1,7262,053
Operating margin17.7%22.0%
Profit after tax1,2311,402

The operating margin lost 4.3 points even as revenue grew, and profit after tax fell 12.2%.

Line chart of IAG share price in pence, daily closes from August to 5 November 2026
IAG’s share price drifted from around 440p in August to 427.2p at the 5 November close, with a dip below 400p in late October (daily closes to 5 November; results were published on 6 November)

The balance sheet is steady. Net debt was 0.6 times EBITDA, and the interim dividend rose 10% to €0.053 a share. The final €500m tranche of the €1.5bn buyback has started and is due to finish by the end of February 2027.

Chief Executive Luis Gallego said: “We are on track to deliver a full year operating margin before exceptional items of at least 12%, within our through-the-cycle target range, and to deliver further returns to shareholders.” That sits at the bottom of the 12% to 15% range.

The detail is mixed. Some 85% of expected fourth-quarter bookings are secured and early 2027 bookings are strong. But the full-year fuel bill is €8.9bn, capacity is slightly down, and 12 aircraft deliveries are expected this year, not 16.

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