International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) has announced an operating profit of 1.3 billion euros (£1.1 billion) for the first half of this year.

The figure is up from a loss of 446 million euros (£383 million) in the same January-June period last year.

Revenue for the group, which owns British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Level and Vueling, was up almost 45%, at 13.6 billion euros (£11.7bn), while fares rose an average of 9.5%.

IAG Chief Executive Luis Gallego said: “Customer demand remains strong across the group, particularly for leisure travel, with around 80% of passenger revenue for the third quarter already booked.

“And our airlines have put in place plans to support operations during the busy summer period.”

But the group said factors such as air traffic control strikes and global supply chain issues meant ‘some of our operations are not where we would want them to be and this is affecting our overall customer service’.

IAG said British Airways is ‘particularly affected’ due to its ‘London exposure and complex schedule’.