Air China quarterly profit up 121pc to US$317.6 million

AIR CHINA has posted a first quarter net profit of CNY2.17 billion (US$317.6 million), up 121.3 per cent revenues of CNY14.7 billion, up 30.7 per cent, attributing gains to rising domestic and international passenger as well as cargo volumes.

Full-year 2009 net profit came to CNY4.85 billion against a loss of CNY9.26 billion in 2008 with sales of CNY51.39 billion, down 2.86 per cent year on year.

First quarter cargo capacity in available freight tonne kilometres, was up 20.76 per cent to 1.8 billion while cargo traffic, in revenue freight tonne kilometres, increased 51.28 per cent year on year to 1.04 billion. Cargo and mail load grew 57.64 per cent, up by 11.63 percentage points over the previous year.

Passenger capacity in the first quarter, measured in available seat kilometres increased 10.64 per cent year on year to 26.59 billion. Revenue passenger kilometres grew 15 per cent year on year to 20.9 billion.

"We expect to see better growth potential in the domestic market driven by the Shanghai World Expo and the Asian Games this year," said Air China chairman Kong Dong. "We remain cautiously optimistic about our prospects for the remaining part of the year."

Cargo revenue fell 24.9 per cent to CNY5.4 billion from CNY7.19 billion in 2008 and passenger revenue amounted to CNY42.7 billion, down 1.5 per cent year on year. Cargo capacity in 2009 increased 2.38 per cent to 6.51 billion available freight tonne kilometres while cargo traffic fell 2.28 per cent to 3.53 billion revenue freight tonne kilometres. Cargo and mail load factor narrowed to 54.23 per cent, down 2.58 percentage points.

"2009 was an historic year for Air China. Nevertheless, we will face new challenges in the year ahead. The rapid increase in domestic capacity and the growing optimism and expanded capacity of international carriers will further intensify competition in the Chinese aviation market, Mr Kong Dong said.

(Source: www.schednet.com)