All Nippon Airways parent ANA Holdings has narrowed its 2021 full-year operating loss to Y173 billion ($1.3 billion), compared with an operating loss of Y465 billion a year earlier.
Revenue for the 12 months ended 31 March jumped 40% to Y1 trillion, and the net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed to Y144 million from Y404 billion, according to ANA’s financial results.
“During fiscal year 2021, the Japanese economy began to recover, demonstrating signs of improvement in corporate production activities,” says ANA.
“While the airline industry continues to face difficulties due to continued effects of Covid-19, passenger demand is recovering especially on domestic flights, and there are signs of recovery in demand for international flights as well, as entry restrictions are gradually eased.”
The reduction in flight restrictions helped international passenger revenue climb 56.8% year on year to Y70.1 billion, with the number of international passengers carried rising 93.2% to 825,000.
International capacity rose 41.9% and RPKs 95.4%. International load factors for the 12 months ended 31 March were still weak, rising 7.4% percentage points to 27%.
ANA also saw improvements at home, with domestic passenger revenue rising 37.8% to Y280 billion, with the number of passengers carried rising 41.9% to 18 million. Domestic ASKs were up 27.5% and RPKs 41.6%. Domestic load factors rose 4.8 percentage points to 47.8%.
A recovering economy and bottlenecks with sea transport helped ANA post record international cargo revenue. International cargo revenue doubled during the year to Y329 billion, while freight carried rose 49.1%.
On the outlook for cargo, ANA says it is “aggressively engaged in handling vehicle components, semiconductors, electronic devise, and medical products such as vaccines.”
As of 31 March, ANA’s cash and cash equivalents stood at Y621 billion, up from Y370 billion a year earlier.
“With respect to our economic forecasts for the future, as economic and social activities begin to normalise, various administrative measures begin to manifest their effects, and overseas economies improve, we expect to see positive changes,” says ANA.
“However, we concerned to various risks, such as high crude oil prices, a weakening yen, and increased commodity prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
It adds, however, that there is a trend to lift restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic in Japan, which bodes well for passenger demand.
