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International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways and Iberia, said its revenue had returned to pre-pandemic levels and raised its full-year profit outlook.

The company, which also operates Aer Lingus, Vueling and Level, on Friday reported revenue for the three months to September 30 of 7.3 billion euros, up 0.9% on the same quarter of 2019, the last full year before Covid-19 started to affect. air travel

IAG said it expected pre-exceptional operating profit for the 12 months to December 31 of €1.1bn, an improvement on a mid-year projection that results for 2022 would be “positive”.

The company announced operating profits for the three months of 1.2 billion euros. The figure compares with a loss of €452 million in the same period in 2021, when operations were hit hard by coronavirus restrictions. Pre-tax profit was €1 billion, compared to a pre-tax loss of €714 million for the same period in 2021.

In the third quarter, IAG operated at 81 percent of the capacity it did in the same quarter of 2019. For the fourth quarter, it said it expected to operate at 87 percent of pre-pandemic capacity.

The recovery came despite restrictions on passenger numbers at London Heathrow, the group’s biggest hub, imposed by the airport’s owner to reduce queues.

Luis Gallego, chief executive, described the figures as a “strong performance”.

“All of our airlines were significantly profitable and we continue to see strong passenger demand, while capacity and load factors recover,” he said.