Nippon Airways back into black

Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) yesterday reported a group net profit of 37.5 billion yen (€0.33 billion) in the nine months to December, swinging into the black on surging travel demand and reversing a year-before loss of 35.2 billion yen.

ANA, the launch customer for Boeing’s delayed 787 Dreamliner jet, also reported an operating profit of 77.7 billion yen in a turnaround from a loss of 37.8 billion yen. Revenue rose 12.5 per cent to 1.04 trillion yen.

“Demand has remained firm with revenues increasing substantially, especially in the air transportation business, in comparison to the same period the previous year,” ANA said in a statement.

Air travel demand was severely hit by the swine flu outbreak in the same term the previous year.

But the airline left earnings forecasts for the full year to March unchanged, projecting net profit at six billion yen and operating profit at 70 billion yen on revenue of 1.38 trillion yen.

ANA said “the economic climate remains challenging with steep rises in crude oil prices, concerns over the outlook for growth in overseas economies, and exchange rate fluctuations.”