British Airways owner sees profit jump on 'strong' demand
Group revenue increased eight percent to 15.9 billion euros in the January-June period year-on-year, "reflecting strong demand for our network and brands", it added.
The company, which in May announced a multi-billion-dollar order for Boeing and Airbus planes, owns also Spanish carrier Vueling and Irish airline Aer Lingus.
"Our strong performance in the first half of 2025 reflects the resilience of demand for travel," IAG chief executive Luis Gallego said in Friday's statement.
"We continue to benefit from the trend of a structural shift in consumer spending towards travel," he added.
IAG expressed confidence "in delivering good earnings growth" for the full year, "whilst being mindful of the ongoing uncertainty that may result from the geopolitical and macroeconomic backdrop".
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Prato's 5,000-odd apparel and knitwear businesses, mostly small, Chinese-run subcontractors, churn out low-priced items that end up in shops across Europe. They pop up quickly and shut down just as fast, playing a cat-and-mouse game with authorities to avoid taxes or fines. Fabric is smuggled from China, evading customs duties and taxes, while profits are returned to China via illegal money transfers. To stay competitive, the sector relies on cheap, around-the-clock labour, mostly from China and Pakistan, which Tescaroli told a Senate committee in January was "essential for its proper functioning". "It's not just one or two bad apples, but a well-oiled system they use, and do very well -- closing, reopening, not paying taxes," said Riccardo Tamborrino, a Sudd Cobas union organiser leading strikes on behalf of immigrants. Investigators say the immigrants work seven days a week, 13 hours a day for about three euros ($3.40) an hour. 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In May 2024, the second-in-command within Prato's Carabinieri police was accused of giving Italian and Chinese entrepreneurs -- among them a chamber of commerce businessman -- access to the police database for information, including on workers. Police complaints from attacked workers "ended up in a drawer, never reaching the court", Sudd Cobas organiser Francesca Ciuffi told AFP. Prato's mayor resigned in June in a corruption investigation, accused of trading favours with the businessman for votes. In recent months, the union has secured regular contracts under national law for workers at over 70 companies. That will not help those caught in Prato's mafia war, however, where "bombs have exploded and warehouses have been burned down", said Ciuffi. "People who wake up in the morning, quietly going to work, risk getting seriously injured, if not worse, because of a war that doesn't concern them."
