Europe's three largest airline groups by revenue reported third-quarter results this week. Fuel is the common thread. Air France-KLM's fuel costs rose 28% to €2,133 million1. IAG's fuel and emissions costs rose 30.4% to €2,444 million, net of hedging2. Lufthansa Group reports €543 million in additional fuel costs, with jet fuel prices driven up by the Middle East conflict3. Demand held up well enough for all three to stay profitable, though the pattern differs sharply between long-haul networks and short-haul flying, which is the split pilots should watch.

The numbers are not directly comparable. Air France-KLM and Lufthansa report adjusted operating profit, while IAG reports operating profit before exceptional items132. All three use calendar quarters, so the third quarter means July to September. Ryanair's financial year starts in April, so its half-year covers April to September4. Wizz Air also runs April to March; its latest published quarter covers April to June5. IAG's fuel line includes emissions charges, whereas the Air France-KLM figure above excludes them21.

Three groups, three different stories

IAG delivered operating profit before exceptional items of €1,726 million on revenue of €9,744 million, a margin of 17.7%, against €2,053 million a year earlier2. Lufthansa Group recorded Adjusted EBIT of €1.4 billion, up 6%, on revenue of €12.2 billion, a margin of 11.5%3. Air France-KLM reported adjusted operating profit of €1,346 million on revenue of €9,916 million, a margin of 13.6%1.

Hedging softened the impact without removing it. Lufthansa says its passenger airlines were around 86% hedged for 20263. Air France-KLM expects a full-year 2026 fuel bill of $9.2 billion, $2.3 billion above 2025, despite an estimated $2.0 billion hedging gain1. IAG expects total fuel cost of €8.9 billion for the year and is 45% hedged for 20272. Ryanair has hedged 80% of its current financial year at about $67 a barrel6.

Within the groups, margins vary widely. At Air France-KLM, KLM Group reached 11.4% in the quarter, but only 4.8% over nine months, while Air France reached 13.5%1. At Lufthansa, the airline bearing the group's name managed 6.0%, weighed down by about €65 million in strike-related costs, while SWISS, Austrian and Brussels Airlines all improved on last year37.

Low-cost units posted strong margins, at a price

Some of the strongest margins came from short-haul point-to-point businesses. IAG said its airlines ranged between 14.4% and 23.8%, with Vueling at the top28. Lufthansa's Eurowings-led point-to-point segment reached 18.7% with €214 million in Adjusted EBIT, after cutting capacity by 3.5%37. Transavia, reported as a single unit covering the Netherlands and France, reached 16.3%, on capacity up 6.9%1.

Those margins came with restraint or pain elsewhere. IAG trimmed European capacity by 1.2%, mainly at Iberia and Vueling, to protect profitability2. Transavia's fuel bill rose 42.6%. The unit still shows an adjusted operating loss of €42 million over nine months1. Ryanair's half-year profit after tax fell 15% to €2.15 billion as it cut its passenger target from 216 million to 214 million4. Wizz Air reported a net loss of €198.2 million in the April to June quarter5, then cut winter capacity by 5%, according to Reuters9.

Pilot recruitment: where the flying is growing

None of these results contain pilot hiring numbers. The clearest signals are about where flying is growing. Lufthansa plans mid-single-digit capacity growth in 2027, focused on intercontinental routes, according to a report on its results slides7. Air France-KLM expects full-year 2026 capacity of about +2% on long-haul, about -1% on network short and medium-haul and about +8% at Transavia1. IAG now expects full-year capacity slightly down on 2025, partly because of lost Middle East flying. It expects 12 aircraft deliveries this year instead of 16, mainly because three Boeing 737s for Vueling are delayed2.

Ryanair expects 16 Boeing 737 MAX 10 deliveries and traffic above 220 million in its next financial year4. At the other end, KLM says it has largely resolved its shortage of pilots and is shifting European flying towards smaller Embraer E195-E2 aircraft while retiring its Boeing 737 and E190 fleets10. Air France-KLM has kept recruitment of non-operational staff paused1. In the UK, Wizz Air offered voluntary redundancy to first officers at London Luton last month, according to the pilots' union BALPA9. Read more in our report on the Luton offer. For the wider premium trend, see how airlines are betting on premium seats. Keep an eye on live vacancies and first-job routes.