British Airways owner IAG said its profit rose by 56% in the three months to the end of September as bosses hailed strong performances on its North and South Atlantic routes.
The business said pre-tax profit rose from just over one billion euros (£879 million) in the third quarter of last year to 1.6 billion euros (£1.4 billion) in the most recent quarter.
Flight capacity was up 17.9% and revenue rose 18.0% to 8.6 billion euros (£7.5 billion) during the period, IAG said.
The cost of fuel dropped 6.2% compared with a year ago while revenue per passenger rose 2.2% and is up by almost a quarter since 2019.
IAG reduced its gross debt by 2.4 billion euros (£2.1 billion) to 17.2 billion (£15.0 billion) in the three months to the end of September.
Chief executive Luis Gallego said: “This quarter represents a record third-quarter performance for IAG. This is allowing us to invest in the business and reduce a significant amount of our debt.
“During the third quarter we saw sustained strong demand across all our routes, in particular the North and South Atlantic and in all leisure destinations around Europe.
“We continue to develop our hubs of Barcelona, Dublin, London and Madrid, supported by our fleet deliveries and future orders.
“Our strong financial performance is enabling investment in our people and allowing us to further improve customer experience.
“At the same time, we will keep working towards our sustainability goals.
“We would like to thank all our employees across the group for their contribution to this performance.”
