China Southern Airlines posted its first quarterly profit in more than three years on Friday as an increase in international flights complemented a recovery in its domestic market.
The result, coupled with similarly encouraging figures from Air China, is helping to fuel industry hopes that the big three state-owned airlines will finally return to profit in the second half of 2023 after years of losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
China Southern posted a third-quarter profit of 4.2 billion yuan ($573.89 million), compared with a loss of 1 billion yuan in the previous quarter and a loss of 6.1 billion yuan in the same quarter a year earlier.
Air China posted a net profit of 4.24 billion yuan in the third quarter, compared with a loss of 600 million yuan in the year-ago quarter and 8.67 billion yuan in the year-ago period.
The third of the state-owned carriers, China Eastern Airlines, will present its results on Monday.
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The aviation regulator delivered another piece of good news on Friday: the number of air passengers in the third quarter reached 180 million, up 2.6% from 2019, before the pandemic, and a record for any quarter in history.
However, the number of international flights, especially to developed countries, is still noticeably lower than in 2019, said Li Hanming, an independent Chinese aviation expert.
“Those routes are the most lucrative,” Li said.
Air China and China Southern did not provide a breakdown of revenue contributions from domestic and international travel.
While domestic travel rebounded quickly to pre-2019 levels after the government abandoned its zero COVID policy late last year, international flights have only gradually increased.
The number of international flights with China remains between 50% and 60% of what it was before the pandemic, according to data from the Flight Master tracking application.
With information from Reuters
Plataforma Informativa de Aviación Comercial con 13 años de trayectoria.