BA operating profit up by over a billion pounds in 2024
February 28, 2025
British Airways has posted an operating profit of £2.048 billion for the full year 2024, parent company IAG has reported, up from £1.34 billion in 2023 and “benefitting from its £7 billion transformation programme”.
With a margin of 14.2%, BA is “making good progress towards its 15% medium-term ambition,” continued IAG, which posted an overall elevated operating profit of €4.43 million; up 26.7% year-on-year. British Airways was the main driver of the Group’s increase in operating profit for 2024.
BA carried over 46 million passengers in 2024, a rise of 6.6% year-on-year, while available seat kilometres also rose 4.4%. This was helped with the delivery of 13 new aircraft, with the airline also celebrating a 12.3 percentage point increase in on time performance.
However, BA’s most memorable moment for many travellers last year will be its December 2024 reorganisation of its loyalty scheme programme; a revision described by BA chief commercial officer Colm Lacey as something which “better rewards [customers’] loyalty and reflects their changing needs”. However, the scheme attracted widespread criticism for apparently moving the proverbial goalposts of qualifying tier threshold points, with the gold level set to jump from 1,500 to 20,000 points this April.
Indeed, BA acknowledges that catering to the needs of the premium cabin sector remains high among its priorities. In 2025 “the strategy is to increase the direct link to expenditure, which has been reflected in the recent British Airways relaunch of its loyalty scheme,” explained BA, adding that the airline “is continuing to invest where it sees the highest returns, in particular the north American market”.
Although it is “still returning to its previous levels of capacity, particularly in premium cabins,” this “affluent customer base” is expected to “support higher profitability in future,” continued BA. With BA now having 66% of its Heathrow-based long-haul fleet fitted with its Club Suite product, at the end of 2025 it will also start to retrofit its A380s with the new first class suite. As of the end of 2025, BA will be the only airline flying a first class cabin across the Atlantic from London.
Additionally, refreshed lounges at Edinburgh, Lagos, Washington and Gatwick in 2024 will be followed by 2025 renovations of its lounges in Singapore, Seattle, Miami and Dubai – as “British Airways continues to invest in its premium proposition”.
BA’s ongoing transformation goals will see it invest £7 billion over the next two years in what CEO Sean Doyle described as a “journey to a better BA,” focusing on refining operational performance, elevating the customer experience and taking delivery of new aircraft.
