Cover Story
Robust domestic traffic buoys earnings at China’s largest airlines
October 1st 2023
The Mainland’s three state-owned airline companies, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, surged into the black in the quarter to September 30 on the back of robust domestic demand. Read More » At press time, Beijing-based Air China had bested the two other “Big Three” carriers when it reported a net profit of 4.24 billion yuan (US$580 million) for the latest three months. Guangzhou’s China Southern was runner up with a bottom line profit for the period of 4.2 billion yuan (US$570 million) and Shanghai’s China Eastern was third, announcing a 3.6 billion yuan (US$494 million) quarterly profit.
China’s domestic air travel demand has overtaken pre-pandemic performance, but demand recovery on international networks is lagging its peers elsewhere across the region.
Factors hampering faster international demand uptake centre around the country’s faltering economy impeded by rising interest and unemployment rates and a volatile geopolitical environment.
megan moroney says:
January 27th 2024 11:41am