The owner of airlines British Airways and Aer Lingus has said its earnings soared in recent months due to “the effectiveness of our strategy and group-wide transformation”.

International Airlines Group (IAG) reported an operating profit for the first three months to the end of September of 2.0 billion euro (£1.7 billion), up 15.4% from 1.7 billion euro (£1.4 billion) a year ago.

Total revenues rose to 9.3 billion euro (£7.7 billion), up 7.9% from 8.6 billion euro (£7.1 billion) last year.

We achieved a very strong financial performance

IAG also announced a 350 million euro (£291 million) share buyback scheme, adding that it expects its “strong financial performance to continue for the rest of the year”.

Fuel costs were 4.2% lower than the previous year, due to lower average prices and more efficient aircraft deliveries, IAG said.

Chief executive Luis Gallego said: “We achieved a very strong financial performance in Q3 2024, with a 15.4% increase in operating profit compared to the same period last year and improving our margin to 21.6%.

“This is due to the effectiveness of our strategy and group-wide transformation.

“We are also delivering on our commitment to provide sustainable returns for shareholders.

“Demand remains strong across our airlines and we expect a good final quarter of 2024 financially.”

Mr Gallego said IAG is “absorbing all the inflationary costs with good cost control”, and is “improving operational performance”, with British Airways punctuality improved by 10% compared with a year earlier.

He said the North Atlantic market is “very strong” for British Airways, with IAG recording a 3.9% boost in capacity for the routes year-on-year, and a 3.5% increase in revenue.

The proportion of seats filled on those flights – known as the load factor – rose by 2.2 percentage points to 89.1%.

Aer Lingus saw a “negative impact” for its North Atlantic flights due to the pilots’ strike and increased competition at Dublin airport.