All Nippon Airways quarterly loss narrows to $60 million

Japan's All Nippon Airways said its first-quarter net loss had narrowed to $60 million compared to last year and predicted a return to net profit for this fiscal year.

Japan's number-two carrier said it expected cost cuts and a rise in flight numbers with the opening of a new runway at Tokyo's Haneda later this year would bring a full-year net profit of $57 million.

The 5.25 billion yen first-quarter loss was far below a 29.2 billion yen loss for April-June last year, when the international aviation sector was badly hurt by the global financial crisis. For the year to March 2011, ANA maintained its previous forecast of a five billion yen net profit and 42 billion yen operating profit.

It warned, however, that a "downward economic swing, primarily in Europe, and increasingly competitive markets both inside and outside Japan make business conditions uncertain".