British Airways’ profits jump despite Heathrow fire closure

British Airways’ half-year earnings have increased despite a £40 million hit from the closure of Heathrow in March after a substation fire, as the airline ramped up its flight programme.

The carrier reported a 48% jump in underlying operating profits to £824 million for the six months to June 30, up from £555 million a year ago.

Owner International Airlines Group (IAG) said earnings were driven higher at British Airways as it increased flight capacity by 2.1% and boosted passenger revenues.

The wider IAG company – which also owns Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling – posted a 43.5% rise in earnings to £1.88 billion for the first half.

Pre-tax profits rose sharply to £1.75 billion from £1.05 billion a year ago.

IAG chief executive Luis Gallego said: “Our strong performance in the first half of 2025 reflects the resilience of demand for travel and the success of our ongoing transformation, underpinned by the fundamental strengths of our group.

“We continue to benefit from the trend of a structural shift in consumer spending towards travel.

“We remain focused on our market-leading brands and core geographies, where we continue to see robust performance, allowing us to invest in fleet as well as technology to improve operational efficiency and customer experience.

“These results give us confidence that we will deliver good earnings growth and margin progression for the full year and enable us to create value for our shareholders through our sustainable dividend and the share buyback.”

British Airways revealed in May that costs of the Heathrow closure earlier this year had run up to £40 million.

The temporary closure was caused by a power outage after a blaze at the North Hyde substation in west London, with more than 270,000 air passenger journeys disrupted by the incident.

In the first-half figures, BA owner IAG said it was “confident in delivering good earnings growth” for the group over the full-year.