News
Spring Airlines: 3Q net profit down 26%; “consumer dissatisfaction rife”
November 18th 2016
China’s first independent low-cost carrier (LCC), Shanghai-headquartered Spring Airlines, has posted a 26.3% year-on-year third quarter net profit decline to 430 million yuan ($65 million). Read More »
Spring’s operating revenue increased 9.7% to 2.6 billion yuan through to September 30 but operating expenses ballooned 20.6% to 2.2 billion yuan during the period.
The latter increase can be explained by Spring not receiving as many subsidies as it used to. During the third quarter, the LCC received 159 million in government aid, down 35% year-on-year.
The airline’s overall load factor averaged 92.6%, down 1.5%, and its loads on international routes averaged 88.6%, down 2.1% year-on-year.
To compare, China’s Big Three full-service carriers and Hainan Airlines all reported significant profit gains in the third quarter.
Separately, speaking at the CAPA Asia Summit in Singapore this week, Spring vice-president, Jonathan Hutt, said airspace restrictions in China make route planning difficult and delay-related consumer dissatisfaction was “rife”.
Hutt further noted that on-time performance was now “a major concern for the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)”, with airlines under immense pressure to improve their on-time departure reliability over fear of losing precious slots.
