IAG, which owns British Airways and Iberia, says the weak pound hit final year profits by 460m euros (£388m).
Pre-tax profits were 2.4bn euros before exceptional items, up 32.7% to 31 December 2016.
Willie Walsh, IAG’s chief executive, said: “It was a good performance in a challenging environment with an operating profit of 2.5bn euros before exceptional items.”
This is up 8.6% from last year in line with expectations.
Good progress
Revenue was down 1.3%, while revenue per passenger fell 5.4%.
The airline group said it intended to carry out a share buyback of 500m euros during the course of 2017.
Mr Walsh said despite the weak pound following the Brexit vote, IAG had continued to make good progress.
“In 2016, we carried more than 100 million passengers – double the number British Airways and Iberia carried in 2010, a year before IAG was created,” he added.
