British Airways parent IAG logs vast loss on virus

IAG, the owner of British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia, dived into a net loss of €1.76 billion in the third quarter on coronavirus fallout, it said on Friday.

The loss after taxation in the three months to September contrasted with net profit of €1 billion a year earlier, IAG announced in a statement.

IAG added that its losses so far this year totalled €5.6 billion as a result of the worsening COVID-19 crisis that has decimated demand for global air travel.

The company resumed flights over the summer, following the national lockdown, but still only operates a greatly reduced volume of services. 

Revenue plunged 83 per cent to €1.2 billion in the reporting period, according to IAG which had already outlined its dire quarterly performance last week.

The group repeated on Friday that it suffered an operating loss before exceptional items of €1.3 billion, after profit of €1.4 billion a year earlier.

“These results demonstrate the negative impact of COVID-19 on our business but they’re exacerbated by constantly changing government restrictions,” said IAG chief executive Luis Gallego. “This creates uncertainty for customers and makes it harder to plan our business...