Earlier this morning I shared an exciting update to colleagues about the fantastic achievements at British Airways following IAG’s full year results announcement. 2025 was a record year for British Airways and I’m delighted to see people from all areas of the business working hard for our customers as part of our £7bn investment. 

Here’s a quick reminder of our success this year and what’s to come in 2026. 

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This morning, IAG announced the group’s financial performance for 2025. At British Airways, we delivered an operating profit of £2,230m – up £182m compared to 2024 – at an operating margin of 15.2%, (+1.0pts vs last year), flying +1.7% more than 2024 levels, demonstrating a strong year of both operational and financial performance.

In 2025, we delivered a strong operating profit as we continued our business-wide transformation to modernise our airline, improve every experience for customers and colleagues, and build a more resilient and sustainable business for the future. Thanks to the hard work of teams across the business, we completed 600 improvement projects last year – taking us to more than 1,200.

That progress is starting to show. Our operation is stronger, punctuality is at record-levels, and customer satisfaction continues to improve. It’s a fantastic achievement and one that I’m very proud of as we keep building a better BA.

A stronger operation and happier customers

Cabin Crew and Pilots with an A320

This year was a record for punctuality across our mainline network, with 82% of flights departing within 15 minutes (D15), up from 73% in 2024. It’s our best operational performance since 2011 and strongest winter performance (Q4) on record.

We flew 46.7* million customers to 183 destinations across almost 308,000 flights. Improvements to our operation and onboard experience helped increase our Net Promoter Score – the measure of customer satisfaction – by 10.5 points compared with 2024 – 5.2 points above target and our best result since 2019. Reliable operations were the biggest driver, accounting for 70% of the improvement, including better punctuality and fewer cancellations creating a smoother customer experience. Together with the brilliant service from our colleagues, initiatives such as Group 0 boarding, fewer boarding groups, automated announcements, and continued investment in food and drink – including premium wine upgrades and Birchall tea – all helped lift customer satisfaction.

Alongside the delivery of new aircraft with our new short-haul interior cabins, we opened the new era of First Wing at our home at London Heathrow and unveiled our new global lounge concept in Miami and Dubai – both receiving excellent customer feedback. These lounges set the standard for future lounge developments, with our Heathrow lounges next in line for a full redevelopment. Behind the scenes, we also launched BA Engineering Gatwick (BAEG), strengthening the long-term growth and transformation of British Airways Engineering.

While we’re proud of our success, we also faced operational challenges, most notably the Heathrow power outage. Despite more than 700 cancellations, we were back operating more than 95% of our schedule on the days that followed. This is thanks to investment in technology and the resilience of colleagues across the operation who worked tirelessly to get customers where they needed to be.

In 2025, we continue to work to reduce our environmental impact, delivering carbon reduction projects across the business, increasing our usage of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and working with government and industry to scale carbon removal solutions. SAF accounted for 4.5% of our total fuel usage, making British Airways the largest user of SAF within IAG. We’ve now removed more than 380 tonnes of single-use plastics on board since 2022, and the BA Better World Community Fund has raised more than £10m supporting 367 charities and community projects.

A look ahead to 2026

In 2026, our customers and colleagues will continue to see the difference. Free, high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi, a new First seat, the launch of our new music venue, the British Airways ARC at Olympia, and a redesigned app will all help raise the bar even higher. A key commitment for the year is ‘Find it, Fix it’ – tackling issues wherever we see them, so we keep improving the experience for our customers and colleagues.

Starlink available from March

The roll out of Starlink is making excellent progress, and I’m pleased to announce that the first British Airways flight with free Starlink Wi-Fi will take off in March. This is a complex and highly-skilled upgrade to our fleet, and I want to thank all our teams who are working hard to make this possible. I know our customers will be looking forward to using this service soon.

New 787-10s for Gatwick

Last year, we announced an order for 32 new Boeing 787-10 aircraft. I’m delighted to share the first of these brand-new aircraft will be delivered to Gatwick in 2029, starting the replacement of our existing 777-200 fleet. These new aircraft, featuring crew bunks, will help us continue improving the onboard experience for both customers and colleagues, while supporting the continued growth of our network.

Thank you to everyone who continues to play a part in our transformation as we build A Better BA for our customers, investors and colleagues.

Best wishes,

Sean 

 

*All financials have been restated to exclude BA Holidays

**Includes mainline, Cityflyer and Euroflyer